Please pray for the Peaceful
Repose of the Soul of
![McDonnell_Geraldine]()
Sister Mary Geraldine McDonnell, RSM
3/20/1920 to 3/28/2013
Born in San Francisco, the oldest of the four children of Michael McDonnell and Elizabeth Moran McDonnell, Mary Margaret was a first generation San Franciscan. She grew up in the Richmond District, attending Star of the Sea Grammar School and High School. She had fond memories of San Francisco in the 1930s and 40s, especially playing in Golden Gate Park and walking to the beach. In fact, she walked or took the street car everywhere in the city, since the family had no car. After graduating from high school in 1938, Peg, as she was called, enrolled in St. Mary’s College of Nursing, graduating in 1941. She continued as a nurse at St. Mary’s HospitalospitalHoH for the next 12 years, first in pediatrics, then surgery, becoming head surgical nurse. The World War II years were both stressful and exciting times in the hospital, and Peg got to know the Sisters of Mercy very well, as she ministered with them through these years.
In 1953, Peg entered the Sisters of Mercy, and taking the religious name Sister Mary Geraldine, professed vows in 1956.
“No one ever knew the many times she helped people who had a problem,” said Sister Mary Joanne DeVincenti, who was a young Sister of Mercy at St. Mary’s Hospital when Geraldine was head surgical nurse there. “She outdid herself in making sure a problem went away, using legal or illegal means!”
