Born in Castletownsend, County Cork, Ireland, on June 24, 1880, Mary was the only surviving child of the second marriage of Catherine Walsh. Mary had four half‑brothers and half‑sisters with the family name of Hegarty. Two of the Hegarty children came to the United States in early youth and settled in Boston, Mass. Daniel Walsh, Mary’s father, made some unsuccessful investments and lost his property; this resulted in Mary’s leaving Ireland and joining the Hegarty clan in Boston around 1898. Bridget Hegarty was a dressmaker and Mary became her assistant and partner. Mary made a visit back to Ireland, but returned to Boston in 1906. She learned about Mount Saint Joseph through a former neighbor and relative, Sister Agnes James. After a brief correspondence with Sister Aloysius Willett, superior at Mount Saint Joseph, Mary made arrangements to enter the novitiate. In April 1908, Mary came to live as a candidate until August 10, 1908, when she entered the novitiate. Mary received the Ursuline habit on August 25, 1908, and the name Sister Bartholomew.
Sister Bartholomew served the Mount Saint Joseph Ursuline community internally until 1913, when she was assigned to Chicago, Ky., where she remained for seven years as a housekeeper and companion to the Sisters teaching in the school. In 1919, Sister Bartholomew was one of the first eight Ursulines to go to Waterflow, N.M. She remained there while Sacred Heart Academy was being built, serving as cook for the Sisters and boarders. In 1926, she was assigned to Bow Valley, Neb., the far north corner where snow comes early and stays late. Again, she was the housekeeper for the Sisters. This was the final year of Sister Bartholomew’s active mission life because the frigid temperatures and deep snows of the long winter in the far north corner of Nebraska aggravated her cough, which developed into pneumonia which, in turn, became tuberculosis.
Returning to Mount Saint Joseph in 1927, Sister Bartholomew suffered patiently in the infirmary for three years. On May 29, 1930, Ascension Thursday, she seemed worse and Sister Antoinette Krampe, the nurse, called Father Martin Frankenberger to Sister’s bedside to recite the prayers for the dying. Sister Bartholomew died peacefully that very day. On May 31, Father James L. Whelan, chaplain, offered the funeral Mass and preached the sermon. It was the feast of Saint Angela. Sister Bartholomew’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.