Sister Rose Margaret Delaney, S.F.P.

Sister Rose Margaret Delaney, S.F.P., a former superior general of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, died July 19 at Schervier Pavilion in Warwick. She was 79 and had lived and served in Warwick for the past 25 years.

A registered nurse, she also was active in spiritual direction and retreat ministry at the House of Contemplation in Warwick and other retreat houses in the United States.

She was president of Park Slope Christian Help, a soup kitchen and social services center in Brooklyn, where she spent all holidays serving the poor and hungry.

She was superior general from 1971 to 1980 and was vice president for mission effectiveness for the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor Health System, 1983-1993. She was the congregation's U.S. regional minister, 1993-1997, and taught at the Eastern Common Novitiate on Staten Island, 1999-2004. Earlier she was director of novices.

She helped write the Rule of Life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis that was approved by Pope John Paul II in 1982.

Born in Falmouth, Ky., she entered the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in 1950 and professed final vows in 1957. She completed studies at St. Elizabeth School of Nursing in Covington, Ky., and held a bachelor's degree in nursing and an R.N. from the University of Dayton and a master's degree in sacred doctrine from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Ind. She did post-master's study at Regina Mundi University in Rome.

She is survived by a sister, Betty Hobart, and a brother, James B. Delaney.

A Funeral Mass was offered July 21 at St. Francis Chapel at Mount Alverno Center, with burial at the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor Cemetery, both in Warwick.