The elderly Athy nun who died in the town's Garda station shortly after her handbag was snatched by an unknown attacker will be buried today.
Sister Angela Flanagan (74) will be buried in the local cemetery after noon Mass in St Michael's parish church.
The local community yesterday paid tribute to Sister Angela at the suburban house in The Crescent, Athy, where she had lived with 10 colleagues from the Sisters of Mercy for the past eight months.
They moved to The Crescent on May 12th last year so the sale of their convent could proceed, said Sister Carmel O'Leary, another member of the Mercy community.
Sister Angela's death was a great shock to her colleagues, said Sister Carmel.
"We had been expecting the imminent death of another one of our sisters who has been ill for some time - but not Sister Angela."
Sister Angela, from Athy, had attended Mass as usual on Saturday at 10 a.m. Immediately afterwards she drove into town "in great form" to pick up a parcel. A witness to the attack in Athy's Stanhope St said the elderly nun was extremely upset because the handbag contained keys to the car and to two houses owned by the sisters.
She pleaded with her attacker to keep the handbag but to let her have the keys, to no avail. She then went to the local Garda station and while reporting the incident collapsed and died. There was no time to give a clear description of her assailant.
Sister Angela had spent most of her working life in Athy as a nurse in St Vincent's hospital for the elderly.