Sister Mary de Sales Smith

Sister Mary de Sales’ life journey ended suddenly in the quiet of her home on Tuesday 18 July. Her life began on 26 March 1922 when Mary Zelma Smith was born to William and Elizabeth (McMahon) Smith, a sister for four brothers and three sisters.

Mary began and completed her primary school education at Guardian Angels School, Southport, spending the time of her secondary years as a boarder at Sacred Heart Convent, Rosalie. After studying and teaching for the Pupil Teacher Examination with the Sisters of Mercy, she heard of a teacher vacancy at the Good Samaritan Convent School at Wilston and gained the position there. It seems it was not long before she felt that God was calling her to join the Sisters in their way of life. Accordingly, she entered the Good Samaritan Novitiate, Pennant Hills, New South Wales on 2 February 1941 receiving the name in religion of Sister Mary de Sales. She made her first profession of vows on 6 January 1944.

After some 23 years spent in Infants, Primary and Secondary schools in New South Wales and Queensland, de Sales ¬- later in life known affectionately as Sally to sisters, family, friends and associates – engaged in ministry in ways that demonstrated her inherent concern and care for people of all ages. This took her to parishes in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, and included the care of refugees from Vietnam, inner-city residents and homeless men and women in Sydney. Her concern extended to the support of the priest and members of a poor parish in Tanzania, who warmly acknowledged the generosity of “Mother Sally”. Her contacts were many and always ecumenical. In Townsville, in 1972 she was even awarded honorary membership of the Salvation Army. In accepting the award she said “I am just an honorary member of the Army and I have no intention of converting!” Her unbounded zeal and enthusiasm for new enterprises were often both a source of joy and of anguish for her sensitive spirit as her copious correspondence often testifies.

In her latter years Sally’s abiding desire for prayer and simple devotion led her to establish Houses of Prayer in several centres. It was at her House of Prayer at Terranora that she was suddenly called to her new life in God. She is survived by her sisters, Patricia Talbot and Jennifer Byrne and brothers Jack and Paul, her sisters in law, Dorothy, Flo, Joan and Daphne, brother in law Jack, and her many nieces and nephews. She is remembered in love and prayer by all her Sisters of the Good Samaritan.

During her life as a Sister of the Good Samaritan, Mary de Sales lived and ministered in the following places…

1944 Glebe Point
1945 Rozelle
1947 Wollongong
1952 Ayr
1954 Kelvin Grove
1956 Mitchelton
1961 Innisfail
1965 Charters Towers
1966 Ayr
1967 Manly NSW
1971 Townsville
1979 Toowoomba
1982 CampHill
1984 Gawler
1986 Newtown
1987 South Hurstville
1996 Macquarie Fields
1997 Carrool/Tweed Heads
1998 Banora Point/Tweed Heads
2000 Terranora