A FUNERAL has been held in Brecon for the Sister who led the town’s Ursuline Convent for many years.

Sister Bonaventure Kelleher OSU died last week aged 96. She was a former teacher at the St David’s Convent School and had first arrived in Brecon, from her native Ireland, in 1953.

Her coffin was carried from the Convent on Glamorgan Street at 10.45 this morning for the short walk to the nearby St Michael’s Catholic Church where parish priest Father Jimmy Sebastian conducted the service.

Her Sisters from the Convent along with Sister Bonaventure’s family and friends formed the funeral procession which followed her coffin to the church.

Despite the rain and heavy showers this morning the weather relented at the time of the funeral and sunshine broke through as bearers from DM Prosser Funeral Directors brought the coffin from the Convent.

As well as being involved in the former convent school, which closed in 1993, and parish life Sister Bonaventure was a stalwart of the local community and a keen historian. She had also served as a co-opted member of Brecon Town Council’s environmental committee.

She died on Thursday, October 10 at the Morgannwg House care home which is based in the former school where she taught.

Following the school’s closure it had become, for a short while, a respite home for the RAF Association and in 2002 Sister Bonaventure was part of a local campaign to save it from closure. When the respite home eventually closed it became the residential home where Sister Bonaventure had been a resident before her death.

Staff from the home and former pupils of St David’s School as well as a wide range of friends from across the community attended this morning’s funeral.