Wisdom and humour inspired all
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Sr Genevieve Ryan rsj - Born November 23 1940; Died June 23 2025
Genevieve Anne Ryan was the second child of Joseph and Faith (nee Carson) of Tranmere. Siblings John, Mary and Dennis live with their families in Adelaide while her brother Brendan died last year.
Gen, as she was affectionately known, attended the local St Joseph’s Primary School at Tranmere. Nearby was a temporary settlement of migrants from post-war Europe, and it was the discovery of a Sister surreptitiously providing foodstuffs for one such family that had Gen decide ‘I want to be like her when I grow up’.
For her secondary schooling it was arranged that Gen should go to St Joseph’s Juniorate at Aldgate, a boarding school for girls who expressed the desire to be a Sister of St Joseph.
She became a postulant in February 1958 at Kensington and, after two years’ novitiate at Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, was professed on January 7 1961. Having completed her Teacher’s Certificate in Sydney, she returned to South Australia in 1962 to teach at Thebarton and then Rosewater.
In 1964 she was appointed to the Waikerie Motor Mission and so began seven years in this ministry – Adelaide City (1966), Hectorville (1967-69) and Peterborough/Pt Augusta (1970). Unique adventures seemed to accompany Gen everywhere she went, and their narrative did not suffer in the retelling.
For example, her many tales included being forced off the road by a speeding semi-trailer and ending up in a gully facing the wrong way – both Sisters unharmed and lucky to be alive. There were stories of spider incidents, negotiating with difficult personnel, getting out of predicaments that only Gen could get into and a whole lot more.
The stories continued as Gen was once again assigned to the classroom as principal at St John the Baptist School, Plympton (1971–75) and deputy principal at St Joseph’s School Port Lincoln (1978–80). In the meantime, she had succeeded in obtaining her BA at Flinders University.
In February 1981 she joined the Catholic Adult Education Service team and over the next six years provided formation in the faith for adults throughout South Australia. Having completed qualifications as a Spiritual Director in 1986, she was appointed as assistant novice director at Baulkham Hills for the Sisters of St Joseph in 1987 and then novice director two years later.
Returning to Adelaide in 1995, she continued her involvement in ongoing formation for Sisters and candidates to Josephite life, in writing and in the giving of retreats and spiritual direction. From 2008 Gen was one of a group of Sisters involved in an integrated program of formation for the three expressions of the Josephite charism: Companions of St Joseph, affiliated Covenant Josephites and vowed Sisters.
While we admire Gen’s long list of achievements, it is her unique character for which she is most remembered. Despite suffering from rheumatoid arthritis from the age of 40, she never let that illness rule her life.
People were drawn to her, sensing her ready acceptance and appreciation of others. She was a deep thinker, but her ability to translate these understandings to life’s practicalities in story meant her words immediately inspired.
She had a wonderful sense of humour, and to the hundreds of friends made on her life journey she provided affectionate companionship.
A vignette to illustrate this: when reuniting with her novitiate companions in 2011 to celebrate their golden jubilee, she described them as now being ‘www.com women – w-hiter (hair colour), w-ider (regrettably) and w-iser (hopefully)’.
After suffering a stroke, Gen died peacefully at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Family, Sisters and friends who came to be with her or who sent messages accompanied her in the last hours of her journey into eternal life, while Father Michael Trainor administered the last anointing.
Since her death, the Sisters of Saint Joseph have received tributes for Gen from all over the world.
Comments affirm what we already knew of her: ‘She was indeed a very special person’; ‘I appreciated very much her truckloads of wisdom’; ‘I remember her competency in relating to adults who had never done any serious adult faith formation’.
Medical professionals who attended to her needs in latter years wrote, ‘It was a pleasure and a privilege to have cared for Sr Gen’.
People spoke of her ‘compassionate depth of understanding of the human spirit and its vulnerability’. They named her as having been ‘a gift who enriched the Church’; ‘a total Josephite’.
As one person said, ‘Mary MacKillop did well in attracting Gen Ryan’.
Vale dear friend, Gen. God’s creation of the unique you has now achieved its glorious purpose.
–Sr Mary Cresp rsj
