The late Sr Ethel Normoyle The late Sr Ethel Normoyle was a “life and death figure” for the thousands of people she helped during her ministry in South Africa, according to Irish missionary Archbishop Liam Slattery OFM.
The archbishop’s words come in the wake of Sr Normoyle’s recent death August 16, which has seen tributes pour in from both Ireland and South Africa for her work helping the “poorest of the poor”.
Clare-native Sr Ethel Normoyle was a member of the Little Company of Mary, and established the Missionvale Care Centre in 1988, a non-profit organisation that provides care and support for the people of the region and beyond.
It was established after Sr Normoyle set up a school and clinic under a tree, and has since evolved into an integrated community centre for the purpose of combating poverty, HIV and AIDS.
Archbishop Slattery said she was “out here over fifty years in South Africa. The Little Company of Mary is her congregation, known as the Blue nuns by many – they are nursing sisters primarily, nursing and social work.
South Africa
“She came out here and has spent her life out here in South Africa. She worked first in Praetoria, and then they also have a convent just outside Port Elizabeth, and there she has lived for a long, long time.”
Archbishop Slattery mentioned the work she has done has been with “very, very poor people”, which included “social caring for orphans and poor people, hungry people, unemployed people, in an area that’s famous for unemployment, Port Elizabeth”.
“She has been a life and death figure for thousands of people over the last 50 years,” Archbishop Slattery said.
He recalled Queen Elizabeth II’s commendation of Sr Ethel’s work in one of her Christmas messages, following a trip she took to South Africa.
“Sr Ethel had a huge impact. Queen Elizabeth in her Christmas message one year mentioned Sr Ethel by name and the work she was doing in Port Elizabeth.
“She visited the centre and met Sr Ethel when she was on a visit to South Africa and she picked her out by name in her Christmas message as a person who was a modern example of caring and concern and community building and caring for the poor.”