Sr. Marjorie Raphael, SSM will exhibit her plein-air paintings at a gallery in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Photo/Helen Bumpas Gallery

[Episcopal News Service] A Boston-area art gallery has hung an exhibit of the plein-air paintings of Sr. Marjorie Raphael, SSM.

Sr. Marjorie was one of three Boston-based Sisters of St. Margaret nuns living in the Couvent Sainte Marguerite, adjacent to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince when it was destroyed by a magnitude-7 earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010.

She came to Haiti after growing up on Long Island and on a farm near West Saugerties, New York, in the Catskills. She graduated from Barnard College and apprenticed with Philadelphia mural painter Violet Oakley (1874-1961) before entering the convent.

All told, Sr. Marjorie served for 34 years in Haiti with a 15 year break when she did administrative work in Boston. Her work in Haiti included the 1962 founding Foyer Notre Dame, a home for elderly people who are alone or whose families cannot care for them.

She stayed in Haiti for a time after the quake but later returned to live in the Boston convent. Foyer Notre Dame continues to operate in one of its two buildings that survived the quake. Work continues on efforts to rebuild Couvent Sainte Marguerite in Port-au-Prince.

The Helen Bumpus Gallery in Duxbury, Massachusetts, is hosting the exhibit and will have a reception for Sr. Marjorie on Jan. 21. More information about the exhibit and her painting is here.