Mary Fidelma was born on Feb. 11, 1910, to John Webb and Frances Beatrice Clark Donahue, of Holy Cross, Ky., the fifth in a family of 10 children. In her biography, Fidelma writes about the beauties of her home life: morning and evening prayer, her mother reading stories and her father teaching them nursery rhymes and songs. She attributes her love of nature to her dad who always took them to see the newly born farm animals, to pick wildflowers in the springs and nuts in the fall. Her happiest memory of Christmas was walking in the snow with her dad to midnight Mass. Her first great sorrow was when her two older sisters left home to enter the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. She was left with the responsibility of being the oldest girl, which meant helping to mother the children. The love and respect she received from her younger siblings gave her the confidence that she could be a teacher, an Ursuline Sister, like her older sisters.
Fidelma attended Holy Cross Elementary School and graduated from Holy Cross High School. She entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph on August 8, 1930, and received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Mary Beatrice on March 19, 1931.
Sister’s first assignment was to Earlington, Ky., as primary teacher in 1933. For the next 51 years, Sister Mary Beatrice graced the lives of first and second grade students not only by her breadth of knowledge and teaching skills, but by her unusual ability to be a visible sign of the love of God that makes each child special. She taught in Owensboro (St. Joseph); Jeffersonville, Ind.; and in Kentucky at Fancy Farm; Axtel; Calvary; Jeffersontown; Peonia, Fredericktown; and finally, returned to Jeffersontown in 1978 before retiring in 1984.
In the early years of her retirement at the Motherhouse, Sister Mary Beatrice served in health care, delivered daily mail from the Maple Mount Post Office to residents of the Motherhouse, and was a faithful member of the Powerhouse of Prayer. She often shared her feelings about her sunset years, saying “It’s unbelievable. Words cannot express the greatness, the goodness, the giftedness of God’s love. It is truly a time of thanksgiving.” Sister Mary Beatrice was among the first Sisters who moved into Saint Joseph Villa, the Motherhouse healthcare facility that opened in 2002. She died there October 15, 2006.
On October 18, Father David Glockner, GHM and Father Thmas Kirkendoll, GHM, celebrated the funeral Mass. Sister Mary Beatrice’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery. Her Ursuline sisters, Sister Jane Frances and Sister Rose Catherine, and Sister Mary Camilla, SCN, preceded her in death.