Sister Benedicta Cannon

(1930-2013)

Daughter of John Cannon and Elizabeth Vance, Benedicta Cannon, was born 24th June 1930 in Fremantle, Western Australia. After completing her schooling, she joined the Order of St Joseph of the Apparition in 1947. Founded by St Emilie de Vialar in 1832 in Gaillac, France it was introduced to Fremantle, Western Australia in 1855. The Order’s mission includes ministry, missionary work, education and care of the sick, poor and aged.

After a secondment to the Order in France, on her return in 1967 she completed a Bachelor of Arts and Education at the University of Western Australia. Possessed of a bright, engaging personality, and sense of humour, she was an inclusive, natural teacher. Her parents, raised in extreme poverty in Bray, Ireland, had placed great value on learning and education. Bennie’s own grandparents had been illiterate, with little chances in life.

Over the years Bennie worked in Cunderdin, Spearwood, Albany, Fremantle and Thailand. As a life-long animal-lover and advocate for the boarders in the Albany convent, she insisted the girls needed a pet and she relished the opportunity to assist them in taking care of the resident dog and cat. Her liberal, understanding ways with her young pupils, didn’t always endear her to her superiors.

Although she enjoyed county life and engagement with remote communities, she also loved to return home and spend time with her parents at 144 Marmion St, East Fremantle and married sister Lil. On holidays, wearing her civvies, she helped around the house and garden. My brothers and I would always recognize fellow nuns in similar civvies - a universal uniform of a cross, worn most visibly around the neck, crisp white shirt and always attired in a sensible pair of shoes!

I recall waiting in the spartan visitor’s reception room at the St Joseph’s Convent in Fremantle, whilst she was in residence there. In May 1967, this aging convent and college premises were auctioned and purchased by Coles for a new Fremantle supermarket. Dad, (Benedicta’s brother Ron) attended this auction and purchased an old German cuckoo clock, with lead pine-cone weights, that had once hung on its walls.

Over the years not only did the Order’s uniforms change, but the very institutions it administered. Vocations were declining in the 1970’s, and the existing workforce of sisters was aging. Divesting itself of many of its properties, teaching institutions and hospital, the sisters embraced the changes, widening their fields to include new activities and roles in the community.

Embracing all of these new challenges, Bennie moved from teaching to counseling and involvement in local community. In her last years she lived with a small group of nuns in a house in Samson. She visited those in need, worked at St Vincent de Paul and did charity craft work to raise funds. She was a skilled craftswoman, crocheting, always upgrading her skills and working on new projects. She loved calligraphy and wrote beautiful messages in her hand-made cards. In her retirement she taught herself to play the flute to inspire the musical education of the young sons of her niece, Jan Howie.

Commonplace in many Irish families, nuns like Bennie formed the cornerstone of an unpaid Catholic workforce. For many such girls, previously destined for a life of home duties and child-rearing, religious life offered an alternate model. In their time, they were essentially non-conformist, unusually well-educated women, who managed to achieve formidable influence, achievements and careers, within the busy working life and structure of a religious order.

With friends and colleagues all around the world, the power and kinship of her fellow sisters was always evident. In the street, I’d often be recognized by one of her fellow nuns and they would disconcertingly know all about me. Her family was also theirs and they kept an eye on you and held great aspirations for your life.

Surrounded by family and her fellow sister’s loyal presence and unfailing support during her cancer treatment, after a lifetime of service, Sister Benedicta died at Bethesda Hospice in Claremont 13th November 2013 aged 83 years.

Thank you for text and photographs contributed by Bennie’s niece Kim Cannon, July 2020