 Sister Maria Trinita (Margaret Mary Reilly) 99, a beloved member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Chestnut Hill, for 81 years, died on March 4, 2008 at St. Joseph Villa, Flourtown, PA, shortly after beginning her 100th year of life. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated there on March 7, 2008.
While a resident at the Villa, S. Trinita was asked to share some of her living history, stories about her family, her life in the Congregation, and her ministry experiences. Thinking that her life had been quite ordinary, she prefaced her autobiographical remarks with”This will not be a best seller.” However, when one lived as long as she did, there were tales to tell and experiences to relate that were far from ordinary.
Born in Southwest Philadelphia to John and Mary Reilly, Margaret Mary was the fourth of five children raised in a home where Irish music echoed frequently from a Victrola. CDs were not in anyone’s thought pattern at that time! One family story that she liked to tell was that when she was young, her father owned a candy store and told his children that he had to sell it because they ate all of the profits!
From West Philadelphia, the family moved to various neighborhoods in the city, and the Reilly children met the Sisters of Saint Joseph, the Christian Charity Sisters and the Immaculate Heart Sisters in the various elementary schools they attended. Margaret Mary loved them all and desired to become a missionary. While a student at John W. Hallahan High School, she helped to prepare a party for several classmates who were entering the convent. That event caused her to think seriously about doing the same, and after declining a full scholarship that she was awarded to Rosemont College, she entered the Novitiate at Chestnut Hill in 1927 at the age of eighteen.
At Chestnut Hill College, Sister Maria Trinita earned a Bachelors Degree and went on to receive two Masters Degrees from Seton Hall and Villanova Universities. She always wanted to be a teacher and was well prepared to teach math, science, Latin, Spanish and art. S. Trinita spent 67 years teaching children in elementary and secondary schools in the Archdioceses of Philadelphia and Newark. When she reluctantly left the classroom, she served as a school financial officer before becoming a resident at the Villa in 1995.
Trinita stayed connected with former students, and a story that that she enjoyed telling happened when she was in her late eighties. She heard that a former student, presuming that she was dead, made a contribution in her memory to one of the high schools where she had taught. Wanting to clarify the fact that she was still going strong, she contacted him and their relationship was renewed. He joined her list of former-pupil correspondents.
In addition to her former students whom she loved, Sister had a deep love for her family who were so faithful to her, but she emphasized that her happiest moment was when her niece, Anne, decided to enter the SSJs and become S. Helen Francis. S. Trinita was the beneficiary of “our Anne’s” fidelity as well as, the compassionate attention that she received from the Villa staff.
We trust that on March 4, Sister Maria Trinita was surrounded by a great communion of saints of family, friends and former pupils who welcomed her home! Rest in peace, S. Trinita Maria,
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