Our Foundress

Mother Kevin Kearney – Foundress of the Little Sisters of St Francis. Formerly called Teresa Kearney, she was born in Ireland in Arklow town on 28^th April 1875, just three months before her father’s death, and at ten her mother also died and the child was brought up by her maternal grandmother. She joined the Franciscan Sisters of St Mary’s Abbey in Mill Hill, London in 1895 at age twenty. She served God at the Abbey till November 2^nd, 1902 when she and five others were sent to Uganda to open a mission. They arrived in Uganda with Bishop Henry Hanlon on 15^th January 1903. The Sisters established schools, hospitals, and homes for the poor.  On May 1^st 1923, with the discernment and consent of Bishop Bierman the Apostolic Vicar of the Upper Nile Vicariate founded an exclusively African Institute – the Little Sisters of St. Francis

Her missionary activities spread out to Europe and America. These were years of expansion to new mission lands and in the bid to carry out evangelization effectively, she got permission from Rome to start a purely missionaries Institute, and in 1952, the Institute of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa came into existence. Mother Kevin Kearney died quietly in her room in Brighton Massachusetts. Her body was flown and buried in Ireland at the Mother House, but with the insistence of the Africans was exhumed and interned at Nkokonjeru – Uganda on 3^rd December 1957.

After her death, the Little Sisters of St Francis continued to be mentored by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa until 1959, when they became autonomous and elected their leaders in the 1^st  General Chapter held in April 1959. The Mill Hill bishops, especially Bishop Campling, were vital in guiding the young Institute on its spiritual journey.