PAINTING BY Sister Marjorie Raphael, S.S.M.

In 1962 Sr. Marjorie Raphael, S.S.M. established the Foyer Notre Dame in Haiti, a home for elderly people who are alone or whose family is not able to fully care for them. Since then she and other Sisters of St. Margaret have provided spiritual and material support in a safe and loving environment, which includes terminal care and burial.

It was also in Haiti, in a convent on the grounds of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, where Sister Marjorie was living when the 2010 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the country, killing an estimated 300,000 people and destroying or damaging tens of thousands of buildings, including Sister Marjorie’s convent. The sisters have been continuing their work with only one building remaining; the other had to be demolished.

Sister Marjorie has now returned to her community’s motherhouse in Roxbury, Massachusetts. There she will not only resume a longtime personal activity, painting, but will actually have a show at a local gallery. Through February 2012 her exhibit “Under the Skies, Four Seasons," which depicts many of the places where she’s lived or visited, will be at the Helen Bumpus Gallery in Duxbury, south of Boston (where her community is relocating after selling their Roxbury location).

There will be a reception at the gallery this Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Sources: Boston.com and the Sisters of St. Margaret