If you have spent any time in the Eastern American Area, youhave probably heard of “the Murphys.” Brigid, Genevieve, and Kathleen, daughters in a family of 12 children born in Ireland, are all RSHM. Brigid was born June 26, 1932, the seventh of the 12, to very devout Catholic parents, where the family rosary was prayed each evening. When World War II broke out, the children learned not only to do with less, but to think about the terrible suffering others were undergoing and never to complain.
Brigid’s education began in a two-room school where religious instruction was central. Students even had to memorize the entire Gospel according to Luke! At age 14, Brigid went to boarding school at Sacred Heart of Mary in Ferrybank, Ireland, and subsequently to Marymount in Paris.
After traveling to the US in 1947 to enter the RSHM at age 15 and taking first vows in 1949, Brigid was sent to St. Mary’s School in Long Island City, where she taught first grade. She had prepared her first lesson thoroughly and was feeling very confident as she entered the classroom. Shortly, however, chaos erupted as 86 children jostled for space in the closet to put away coats and lunch boxes. Addressing the disaster, Brigid orchestrated a “search and rescue mission” to locate, identify, and store their belongings in an orderly manner. While some completed that task, others worked on a writing assignment. Then, the bell rang for lunch and play. The children went to the playground, and Brigid went to her room and cried, saying she wanted to go home because she had failed to complete any of the lessons she had so carefully prepared. Fortunately, Mother Annunciation, principal and superior, assured her that she’d never heard of anyone else getting so much done with 86 children, even in a week. Brigid returned to her students, full of confidence, and never looked back.
Subsequently, Brigid was missioned to Quebec City, Canada; Ferguson, MO; Bon Air, VA; and Chicago, IL. In 1972, she was sent to Marymount International School in Rome, where she again taught first grade, her real love, for 29 years. During this time, she also spent a year at Fordham University in NYC to earn her master’s degree in education. In 2001, she went to Marymount International School in Paris for 24 years, until she retired to Marymount Convent in 2025.
Brigid states that after all her years of teaching, she has learned that both children and adults learn best when they experience love, compassion, and kindness, and that the youngest children are the quickest to respond, which is why she has always loved teaching first grade. This belief about learning was reinforced for Brigid when she worked for a summer with poor migrant children in Florida and another summer with children in Zimbabwe. In both cases, she states that what might have been situations filled with misery and hopelessness were transformed when the children were given love, compassion, care, and opportunity.
Throughout her many years and experiences, Brigid knows that miracles happen all the time. She notes that throughout her life, in any impossible situation, she remembered that “Nothing is impossible to God” if only you “Do whatever he tells you.” This faith has enabled her to fulfill her mother’s reminder to tackle many things that couldn’t be done, which indeed she did, beginning with that first chaotic class in Long Island City.
Today, in retirement, Brigid feels called to prayer, love, compassion, kindness, and joy, and says, “It is a privilege to live with so many living saints.”