Sr Stan: A Light in the Darkness
by Ronan Scully
It is with deep sorrow and profound gratitude that I write to honour Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, or Sr Stan as she is better known, who this week went home to God at the age of 86.
Few lives are lived with such courage, compassion, and steadfast faith. Her passing leaves a void, yet her light continues to inspire us to love more deeply, act more boldly, and hope more faithfully.
Sr Stan was fearless. She spoke truth to power and tirelessly advocated for those society too often forgets, the homeless, the marginalised, the lonely, the voiceless.
She confronted injustice not with anger, but with unwavering love, prayer, and integrity. She understood that faith is not merely belief, but action. As Saint James reminds us: "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17). She lived this truth daily, showing that God’s love moves through ordinary hearts willing to risk compassion, persistence, and courage.
A Sister of Charity, Sr Stan dedicated her life to serving those on the margins. In 1985, she founded Focus Point, now Focus Ireland, to support those experiencing homelessness. Through the Immigrant Council of Ireland, and through The Sanctuary on Stanhope Street, she transformed faith into action. She understood homelessness not just as a social problem, but as a spiritual wound, a forgetting of the sacredness of each human life.
I was privileged to meet Sr Stan a few times during my own pastoral work when studying in Maynooth and also over the years with my own work with the poorest of the poor in Ireland, Asia and Africa.
Even in brief encounters, her presence was transformative. She had a gift, a rare, holy gift to listen fully, without judgement, without distraction. Every story of pain, every note of hope, every confession of struggle, was met with reverence. She made you feel that your story mattered, that your life mattered. Her hand would rest lightly on yours, her gaze steady and compassionate. She asked questions not from formality, but from a profound care for the soul.
In her presence, you felt God’s love not as an abstract idea, but as something living, tangible, and present. I recall visiting a small hostel where she knelt beside a young mother, whispering encouragement to a child trembling with fear. That child smiled for the first time in weeks. I remember a father, exhausted and hopeless, whose tears she held with her own hands, reminding him that he was not invisible, that his life mattered. These small, intimate moments were the measure of her ministry. She lived the Gospel: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35). Every life she touched reflected God’s love.
Even as her body aged, her spirit remained radiant. She celebrated the resilience of those she served as a mother celebrates her children, rejoicing in their courage, strength, and perseverance.
Sr Stan’s passing is not merely a loss, but a call. To honour her is to stand with the marginalised, lift the voices of the voiceless, and bring hope where despair has taken root.
Her legacy is one of presence, with the poor, the lonely, the homeless, the immigrant and the searching, and a call to each of us to live with empathy and courage.
* Ronan Scully, from Charlestown, Clara, works with Self Help Africa.