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Teresa Kearney, known in religious life as Mother Kevin, was born on April 28, 1875 in Knockenrahan, Arklow, Country Wicklow, Ireland. Her father died before she was born, and her mother died when she was just ten. Her grandmother, who then raised her, died when Teresa was seventeen.
In 1889, Teresa began teaching in a school run by the Sisters of Charity in Essex, England, but in 1895, she left to join the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Five Wounds in London. In religious life, she took the name Kevin of the Sacred Passion.
As a young woman, she had a dream that God was calling her to serve black-skinned people. So, when she heard about an opportunity to do missionary work in the United States with African Americans, she volunteered. She was rejected for this ministry, but later, she received permission to go Uganda, a nation in east Africa.
On December 3, 1902, Sr. Kevin and five other sisters left London and headed for Uganda. They arrived on January 15, 1903. Initially, the bishop gave them the task of serving girls and women.
For the next half a century, Mother Kevin threw herself into serving the people of Uganda in a number of ways.
First, she established schools for girls and women and promoted higher education for them.
Second, she devoted much of her time advancing the healthcare opportunities for the people. This she did by founding hospitals, clinics, and schools of nursing. With a lay missionary physician, Evelyn Connolly, she also founded a school of midwifery to go with the school of nursing. Interestingly, “Kevina” means “hospital” or “charity institution” in Uganda.
Third, she advanced the cause of black religious sisters in the Catholic Church by founding the Little Sisters of St. Francis. This order, composed of black sisters, devoted themselves to teaching and nursing.
Fourth, she was a champion of efforts to treat all people with dignity and respect. She was enraged by how Europeans treated African porters with whom they had contact, and she always challenged disrespectful behavior.
Fifth, she served children by not only providing them schools, she also founded orphanages for those without homes.
Finally, she broke off relations with the Mill Hill Fathers when they wanted to divert the sisters from their African ministry into their missions in England and the United States. When she did this in 1952, her congregation became known as the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa (FMSA). Mother Kevin became the first superior-general of the order.
Mother Kevin retired at the age of 80 and spent her last two years of life in Boston, Massachusetts raising funds for the work in Africa. The Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa in time expanded from Uganda to Kenya, Scotland, Zambia, South Africa, and the United States.
Among the awards she received include being made: a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE); Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE); and Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1955, the Catholic Church awarded her the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (For the Church and the Pontiff).
Mother Kevin died on October 17, 1957 in Brighton, Massachusetts.
On November 6, 2016, Mother Kevin became known as a Servant of God when the Catholic Diocese of Lugazi (Uganda) opened her formal beatification process.
