(1924-2017)

Help us, when the work is done, to have been
Friends of God and prophets. 

Sister Nadine Foley, known also as Sister Thomas Aquin, was born on April 10, 1924, in Newberry, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula. She was the first of eight children born to Thomas and Ursula (Thompson) Foley. Both parents were born in Michigan and, based on her father’s family, are of Irish/French heritage. Sister Nadine’s mother was given up for adoption at birth and nothing is known about her birth mother. 

Their eight children were born over a period of twenty-eight years. Her mother was about twenty when Sister Nadine was born and when the youngest child, Michael, was born, her mother was forty-seven. 

In her autobiography, Sister Nadine shared the following memory about her mother.

I still think a lot more about my mother since her death [1997]; she was really a remarkable woman. She loved school and she was a very good student [but] she never had the opportunity to attend high school. I realized, as the oldest one, that much of what she wanted for herself she transferred to me. In the course of time she worked at Newberry State Hospital, a mental health institution, and later became a licensed psychiatric nurse by taking courses at Northern Michigan University. When she was 70 she got her high school equivalency from Newberry High School and we were all there for her graduation.

Sister Nadine’s early years were during the Great Depression. Her education began in Newberry Elementary School in 1928 and ended in 1941 when she graduated from Newberry High School.

Read more about Sister Nadine (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

 

Additional articles:

Come Wisdom: Remembering Sr. Nadine Foley, written by Sister Elise D. García, published by Global Sisters Report:
http://globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry/come-wisdom-remembering-sr-nadine-foley-46786

Learn more about Sister Nadine in this What's Happening article.

Text of Funeral Homily by Sister Attracta Kelly, OP.

 

Vigil for Sister Nadine (Thomas Aquin):

Download video. Videos will be posted for 4-6 weeks, then removed.

 

Funeral for Sister Nadine (Thomas Aquin):

Download video. Videos will be posted for 4-6 weeks, then removed.

 

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