DIED ON THE STROKE OF TWELVE
The Superioress of the Magdalen Asylum Passes Away.
Mother Gabriel Was One of the Founders of the Community in California.
She Leaves Many Friends to Mourn Her Loss The Girls at the Asylum Inconsolable.
San Francisco Call, June 19, 1897
Mother Gabriel, the well-loved mother superior of the Magdalen Asylum, died yesterday morning at the asylum of which she was so many years in charge.
She had been ill just one week; heart failure was the cause of her death. In the world she had been known as Sylvia Brown.
Mother Gabriel was a most charitable woman, her special work, however, lay in the rescue of unfortunate young women, and among these girls she was dearly loved. When the recreation hour came yesterday there was no joyousness displayed, and the playground was almost deserted. In little groups of twos and threes the girls passed up the stairway to the chapel, where the body of the beloved mother lay. Kneeling beside the casket, in the dim light of the tapers, the girls presented a most pathetic picture.
"It seems," said one of the sisters, "that the poor things cannot be comforted unless they are here as near as they can be to her. In life she was their best friend. Always gentle and mild, the girls could make a confidant of her. No matter how badly they grieved her, she was never reproachful, and so they grew to love her. Now they are unconsolable. Her death was such a beautiful one, just on the strike of 12, with her rosary in her hand and a prayer on her lips, she resigned her peaceful soul to her creator."
Mother Gabriel was born in Limerick, Ireland, on the 19th of November, 1828. At an early age she entered a convent of mercy. As novice she volunteered to come to San Francisco, and in 1854, in company with Mother Russell, four professed sisters and two other novices, she arrived here and was one of the founders of the community in California. For awhile [sic] they occupied a cottage on Vallejo street, and before long, in a few months or so, they obtained charge of the City and County Hospital, which was then located on Stockton street, between Vallejo and Broadway. On the 6th of March Mother Gabriel pronounced her vows and took the black veil in the little chapel connected with the hospital.
In 1857 she was sent to found a school in Sacramento, which she did, and was made superior of it. The school, St. Joseph's, is in a flourishing condition to-day. For some years she was there, and was then called back to San Francisco to be made superior at St. Mary's Hospital. Then from time to time she was at the Magdalen Asylum and also at St. Mary's Hospital, and for the last fifteen years or so she had been at the asylum.
Mother Gabriel was 68 years and 7 months of age. She leaves three sisters to mourn her loss—Mrs. Dr. Condon, who resides in Ballyshannon, Ireland; Mrs. E. M. Tobin of Inglewood, Ill., and Mrs. V. S. Clarke of this City.
To-morrow her remains will be moved to the chapel at St. Mary's Hospital, where she will lie in state until Monday morning, when a requiem high mass will be said for the repose of her soul. About 11 o'clock the funeral services will be held and her body interred in St. Michael's Cemetery, near the asylum.
Late Sister Mary Bernard O'Dwyer.
San Francisco Examiner, March 11, 1869
In the EXAMINER, yesterday, was briefly announced the death, at St. Mary's Hospital, of a Sister of Mercy, Mary Bernard O'Dwyer. The deceased was a native of the county Tipperary, Ireland, and at the time of her death was forty-two years of age, and was about twenty-two years a member of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy. She came here in 1854, from Kinsale, in the county Cork. A contemporary says: "After she had been in San Francisco some time she was removed to Sacramento, and afterwards to Grass Valley, and finally returned again to take charge of the Magdalen Asylum, which had been established by the Order here; but she was subsequently obliged to leave it, in consequence of the delicate state of her health. When the small-pox plague was prevailing in its worst form, in the city—when the pest-house and the hospitals were full—when the very name of the disease had a loathsomeness that caused people to shudder the good Sister volunteered her services to attend to the sick and dying in the pest-house, and spent many weary months in the performance of her self-imposed duty, from which she was relieved only by the earnest entreaty of her physician. On last Monday week, while she had been at the City and County Hospital rendering assistance to the sick there, she was obliged to yield to her malady which terminated at five minutes past five o’clock yesterday morning, when death brought release from her sufferings.