Sister Marjorie Raphael, SSM, was living in a convent on the grounds of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti when the earthquake hit two years ago. She is now back at the Sisters of St. Margaret convent in Roxbury, Massachusetts and has returned to painting.
A new exhibit highlights her work and her 34 year Haitian experience.
For the first time since Sister Marjorie Raphael returned to her convent in Roxbury shortly after surviving the massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, she will have her paintings featured at an art gallery.
For the next two months, the nun’s exhibit “Under the Skies, Four Seasons” – which reflects on many locations she’s lived in or visited including Haiti, Roxbury, Duxbury, British Colombia, and the Catskills in New York – will be on display at the Helen Bumpus Gallery in Duxbury, a coastal town south of Boston where her convent plans to relocate to this year in order to sell their Roxbury location to consolidate their operations.
Two years ago today, Sister Marjorie Raphael was stationed in a convent on the grounds of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake upended the already-struggling island nation. An estimated 300,000 people died and tens of thousands of buildings were damaged, including the convent where the nun was living.
After spending a total of 34 years in Haiti caring for and ministering to children and the elderly, the nun returned to the Sister of Saint Margaret’s convent on Highland Park Street in Roxbury shortly after the devastating natural disaster.
The art gallery said in a press release that she “has picked up her brush again with a renewed passion.”