Sr. Margaret Higgins OFM (1880-1951)

Sr. Margaret Higgins was born in Summerhill, Co. Meath some time between 1873 and 1880 to Thomas Higgins and Julia Barber. She was sister to the 10th Baron of Ballynary and emigrated to the USA in 1909 where she joined a Franciscan Order in Burlington, Iowa. While she was with this Order she was known as Sister Mary Paul and based at the Mercy Hospital until December 1913 when she left and joined another Order called the Glen Riddle Franciscan Sisters otherwise known as the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia who were based in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Mercy Hosipital, Burlington, Iowa, USA.

After she joined the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia she took the name Sr. Mary Petra and completed novitiate with final profession on December 27th 1915. She worked after this in St. Joseph's Hospital, Baltimore, Sts. Philip and James Parish, Baltimore, St. Joseph's Home, St. Peter Claver Parish and School, Baltimore. She seems to have returned to Ireland in June 1932 for the Eucharistic Congress and died in St. Joseph's Hospital in Baltimore in 1951 in the 36th year of her religious profession from "high blood pressure and heart trouble".

St. Peter Claver Parish, Baltimore, USA.

Little is known of her work with the Franciscan Sisters except that for most of her life she worked among the poor. She is buried in Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Baltimore.

Franciscan Sister's Grave in Baltimore, USA.