Annie Lynch

Annie Lynch (18641938), known by her religious name as Mother Mary Xavier, was an Irish-born Australian religious sister and nurse. She was a member of the Little Company of Mary, and served as the congregation's first provincial for the region of Australasia. She oversaw the growth of the Lewisham Hospital as superior of the Lewisham convent. As provincial, she established several more hospitals in Australia and New Zealand.

Early years Annie Lynch was born on 4 December 1864 in the town of Ranahinch, in County Westmeath, Ireland. She was named after her mother, Annie Lynch, née O'Reilly. Her father worked as a grazier, responsible for the care and feeding of sheep and cattle.

Not much is known about her childhood, but in rural Ireland, many families dependent on agriculture experienced hardship. The 1870s were a time of rising tensions over land reform and tenants rights. Due to flooding and lost crops, the years 1879 and 1880 were particularly difficult, with famine adding to political tensions.

Religious vocation and nursing As a young woman, Lynch attended a convent school run by the Sisters of Mercy in nearby Ballyjamesduff. Drawn to the religious life, Lynch decided to join the Little Company of Mary, a Catholic religious order founded by Mary Potter in 1877. The order's particular mission was to care for the sick and the dying, and the sisters were trained in nursing. Lynch moved to Rome, Italy, where Potter had established a mother house in 1882. Lynch joined the Little Company of Mary as a postulant on 1 April 1887. During her novitiate, she was supervised by Potter herself. After professing her final vows, she adopted her religious name, "Mary Francis Xavier".

Lynch remained at the mother house in Rome until 1894, when she was sent to establish a congregation of the order in Malta.

Leadership in Australia

In 1899, before the completion of the new building in Malta, Lynch was recalled to Rome by Mary Potter. Her leadership and administrative skills were needed for a new assignment. Potter asked Lynch to serve a six-month stint as visitor-general for the Australian congregation of the Little Company of Mary. A small group of sisters, under the leadership of Mother Mary Rafael Farrar, had arrived Sydney in 1885, accompanying Cardinal Patrick Moran, who was returning from a trip to Rome. A general hospital was begun on 7 August 1898. She travelled to Rome shortly thereafter to attend the election of the new Mother-General of the order. In 1927, she oversaw the founding of a second hospital in New Zealand, in Wellington. She died on 7 June 1938, 50 years to the day from the opening of the Lewisham Hospital.

Upon her death, her body was brought to the Chapel of the Maternal Heart at Lewisham Hospital, where it was received by a choir of nuns and members of the clergy, including Thomas O'Shea, the Archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand, and Giovanni Panico, the apostolic delegate. The nuns kept vigil overnight, in keeping with Catholic tradition. On 9 June 1938, Archbishop O'Shea presided over a Solemn Requiem Mass in the chapel. The Very Reverend R. Macken gave the eulogy. In his remarks, he observed that "Australia is indebted to her more than any other for the growth and expansion of that great home of the healing known as Lewisham." Her husband, Colonel Francis Freehill, was secretary of the hospital for many years.