Sr. Mary Laurentia Purcell

Sr. Mary Laurentia Purcell, born Mary Bridget Purcell at Gortnagroagh, Galway, Ireland in 1907 was the daughter of Patrick Purcell (1882-1975) and Mary Bridget Reynolds (1881-1927) and the grand daughter of John Purcell (1853-1919) and Maria Madden (1856-1932) of Belderrigbeg, Co. Mayo and John Reynolds and Bridget O'Flaherty (1848-1927) of Gortnagroagh, Roscahill, Co. Galway.

She was a postulant in the Sisters of Mercy. Because she suffered from TB her superiors sent her to Australia to benefit healthwise from the dry climate. She entered the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, The Range, Rockampton, in December 1927. She received her final vows and was professed as Sr.Mary Laurentia Purcell on her death bed on 1 October 1932. She died at the age of 25 at the Mater Hospital, Rockampton and is buried in the Sisters of Mercy Plot in North Rockhampton Cemetery.