Margaret Haughery - Other

Other

Of the three older Gaffney family children left behind in Ireland (Thomas, Mary and Annie) when young Margaret and her parents, along with an infant and one brother, in 1819 set sail for America; for the rest of Margaret’s life of tragedy and triumph — of service and charity to others, orphans and windows in particular — she only reunited with her remaining foreign-soil siblings once, when elder brother Thomas visited her in New Orleans in 1857.

Although first entombed at St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 with Sister Regis, the Sisters of Charity communal tomb was later moved to a circa 1971 mausoleum vault at St. Louis Cemetery No. 3, located on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans. Margaret along with her dear friend Sister Regis, and each Sister of Charity who died prior to 1914, are listed on two plaques; Margaret's St. Louis Mausoleum final resting place is an unmarked Vault numbered 18A, located on Mary Magdalene Corridor.

New Orleans, Louisiana Archbishop Perché in his 1882 eulogy to Margaret said, “I have already been asked whether Margaret Haughery, who lived and labored so long and well amongst us, was a saint. It is not for me to make a pronouncement. But, if you put this same question to yourselves, dear brethren, you may find an answer similar to that which a little boy once made when a sister in our Sunday school enquired that somebody define a saint. 'I think' said the child, remembering the human figures in stained glass windows, ‘that a saint is one who lets the light shine through.’”