And in the week when a book about her - charting from when she left her family home in County Galway, in 1958 to make a new home on Wearside - was released, we paid our own tribute.
Enjoy our gallery of Sunderland Echo archive photos of the self-confessed ‘Powerhouse of Prayer,’ who is one of the first people foreign seafarers come across when berthed at Port of Sunderland.
1. A powerhouse in Sunderland
Sister Mary Scholastica, one of Sunderland's finest ambassadors whose life is being celebrated in a new book. | se
2. Momentous in 2002
A big moment as Sister Mary Scholastica, Jim Cleghorn, Jim Clark and others hand over the first cheque for the Grace House Hospice Appeal to Kathy Secker in October 2002. | se
3. Helping a worthy cause in 2006
Regulars in the Clarendon pub raised £500 for the Apostleship of the Sea in 2006. Here are Peter Barrigan, Tony McAvoy, Len Carrick and Denise Kellingray with Sister Mary Scholastica. | se
4. A photo from 17 years ago
Jim Cleghorn and Sister Mary Scholastica in a Sunderland Echo archive reminder from 2008. | se