Sister Mary Bernadette Of the Immaculate Conception, OCD

Sr. Mary Bernadette of the Immaculate Conception, OCD

Sister Mary Bernadette of the Immaculate Conception was called home to our Lord on January 3rd, 2025 at 9:42 pm at the age of 101. Sister Bernadette's life was defined by her deep love for Jesus, and this shone through her great prayerfulness and joyful love for her community; it couldn’t have been more fitting that she was born into eternal life on the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus with her beloved Carmelite sisters at her bedside.

Patricia H.K. Dixon was born with her twin sister Shirley to Eric E. Dixon and Maud Kinsella on October 14, 1923. She grew up in East Orange, New Jersey as the fourth of five children, and lived for a brief time in Ireland at the age of nine. In her earlier years, Sr. Bernadette would sit before the Blessed Sacrament, where she recalled, “Jesus taught me how to pray.” Her vibrant prayer life and love for Christ led her to heed the call to the religious life, and she entered the Carmel in Mobile, Alabama. There she took temporary vows, but did not pursue her solemn profession. However, not wanting to go back to the world, she accepted a suggestion by her superior to discern a possible vocation as an extern sister at a Carmel in Columbus, Ohio. There Sr. Bernadette spent a year of postulancy, but still struggled to commit to the extern on account of her continued desire to be a Choir Sister and left in November, 1951. 

The next sixteen months of her life were spent out in the world, where under the direction of Fr. Louis Farina, she worked to completely overcome the scruples that she experienced in Mobile. Fr. Farina would be the instrument of God which proposed the idea of assisting in Little Rock Carmel as an extern. She happily accepted this offer and came to the Carmel of Saint Teresa of Jesus in Little Rock, Arkansas on March 24th, 1953. Sr. Mary Bernadette of the Immaculate Conception received her name and was clothed with Our Lady’s habit on April 23rd, 1955. She was temporarily professed on May 7th, 1956.

Sister Bernadette spent 12 years working alongside the late Sr. Catherine as an extern sister where they were known to joyfully serve the community and kept several cats. Throughout this time, her longing to become a Choir sister remained within her, and the opportunity to enter the cloister finally presented itself after the Second Vatican Council. God did not forget her desires, and Sr. Bernadette made her solemn profession on May 7, 1968.

Within the cloister, Sr. Bernadette served for some time as a council sister and worked many years in the sacristy. When asked what she loved about being sacristan, she would reply: “Everything.” Her vibrant prayer life and love of Jesus in the Eucharist showed itself through her loving interactions with her sisters, and her witty humor made her beloved by everyone she would meet. She was incredibly attentive to even the “little things” she would do for God and the community and was esteemed for her great faithfulness.

Known for her gentle spirit towards all life, Sr. Bernadette was very careful to capture and release every little bug, even mosquitos. During community recreation, it was not unusual to hear her reciting memorized poetry, and her harmonica would make frequent appearances in the speakroom where she would entertain those around her with an improvised solo or two. Her lively spirit and love of fun radiated through her enjoyment of dance and song, and she never failed to make her sisters laugh when the opportunity presented itself. Her light was contagious, and her love was simple; she loved Jesus, and it engulfed everything around her.

Sr. Bernadette was preceded in death by her parents Eric E. Dixon and Maud Kinsella, her older sisters Eileen Mary Prendeville and Marion Shirley Norton, and her two brothers Edward James “Ted” Dixon and Robert Emerson Dixon. She was survived by her many loving nieces and nephews and all of their children, her friends, and her beloved Carmelite sisters, and she will be dearly, dearly missed.