Eleanor Martin, SCN, 79 (formerly Sister Mary Eleanor) was born August 20, 1945, in Revere, Mass. to Anthony Leo Martin and Eleanor Agnes Storey. She died on Nov. 16, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. She was a Sister of Charity of Nazareth for 58 years.
Named after her mother and grandmother, Eleanor was the oldest child and her mother’s helper to her younger siblings. As a little girl, she would spend time with her father watching his favorite sports teams. By the time she was five years old, he had used the editorials and sports sections of the newspaper to teach Eleanor to read. As she got older, her mother was determined that she would attend Archbishop Williams High School and receive a scholarship to college.
Sister Eleanor earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Nazareth College, Nazareth, Ky., in 1968. She went to work for Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital in the business office.
From 1970-1975, Sister Eleanor taught History and English at Our Lady of Nazareth Academy in Wakefield, Ky.
Earning her law degree in 1978 from Boston College, Sister Eleanor served as an attorney in Kentucky and Massachusetts. She worked for the Legal Aid Society of Louisville for several years and for Southeastern Massachusetts Legal Assistance and the Irish Immigration Center.
She was a Catholic Health Initiatives Board of Stewardship Trustee from 2007-2016, and prior to that served as a Member of the Civil Corporation, representing the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth for many, many years.
A tireless legal advocate for the disadvantaged, Sister Eleanor was chosen as the first inductee of the Archbishop Williams High School Academic Hall of Fame. A 1963 AWHS graduate who, on her graduation from Boston Law School, became the first SCN to become an attorney.
Sister Eleanor served her religious community, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, as generalate treasurer in Nazareth. Years later Sister Eleanor was elected the first vice provincial of the Western Province of the SCNs, serving in Quincy, Mass.
She is survived by her siblings, Kathleen Chaput, Judith Galvin, and James Martin, her extended family, friends, and her religious community, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
Sister Eleanor’s arrangements:
- The Wake will held Monday, Dec. 2 at 6:30 p.m. in St. Vincent de Paul Church in Nazareth
- The Funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec.3, in St. Vincent de Paul Church
- Burial will follow in the Nazareth Cemetery. · Wake and Funeral Mass will be live-streamed at nazareth.org/live.
Funeral Arrangements are being handled by Ratterman Funeral Home, 3800 Bardstown Road in Louisville. Memorials may be made to the Office of Mission Advancement, PO Box 9, Nazareth, KY, 40048.
Sister Ellen Maria, taught me and my two sisters at Nazareth academy in Wakefield,ma. We all adored her, respected her and appreciated her brilliance! She was awesome! Very human, kind and hardworking, she inspired us all. Being home with god must be peaceful, but I cannot see her “resting”.
As a graduate of Archbishop Williams but a year behind Eleanor, I was unaware that any of my contemporary fellow students chose to be a SCN sister. After 4 years of “surviving” the school’s strict and rigorous educational and moral code as a teenager in the early 1960’s (and forced to writing AMDG on the top of all the papers we handed in), I would not have thought that anyone of us would have chosen to become one of “them”! Well God bless her … she obviously received a calling from Jesus, and it seems she led a very remarkable and rewarding career, something her former teaching sisters at AWHS could be proud that maybe they had influenced her by their dedication to a scholarly and religious lifestyle. Back then all the teachers at AWHS were SCN sisters except for 2 male teachers, but now at class reunions at the school there are none to be found. The world would most probably be a better place if more of us received the call as Eleanor had.
Eleanor and were friends since high school at Archbishop Williams in Braintree. We also entered the SCN Congregation together in 1963.
She shared her brilliance and keen sense of justice across many ministries as teacher and attorney. I marveled at her ability to recall intricate details and to strongly advocate for those who could not advocate as powerfully for themselves.
I loved her and had the privilege of experiencing the gentleness of her heart, especially with my mom who adored her.
May she rest now in peace and joy.
Recordar es vivir
Eleanor, compañera en la lucha por justicia. Thank you. RIP dear sister. (really rest?!!). You are home with our Creator, and whole again. Enjoy reunion with loved family and community members, and former clients. You have passed on the torch. We love you. Recorder es vivir. To remember is to live.🦋🌈😇🙏🏽❤️