One of the foremost experts on religious art in Australia and a lifelong Sister of Mercy has been remembered at a Mass in Parramatta for her “innate charm”, deep religious conviction and exceptional knowledge of art history and practice.
Sr Rosemary Crumlin rsm died in Sydney on 25 July 2026 after a lifetime of service to the Sisters of Mercy and the Catholic Church as an academic and teacher, artist and curator. She was 93.
The Eucharistic Celebration for her at the Mother Mary Clare Dunphy Memorial Chapel in Parramatta on 13 August was attended by many in the Mercy community, along with family and friends. It was celebrated by Fr Frank Brennan SJ, with Fr Peter Williams AM, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia in the Diocese of Parramatta, and Fr Paul Monkerud, as cocelebrants.
Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv, Bishop of Parramatta, delivered a reading from the Gospel of Matthew (5:1-12), which contained several of Sr Rosemary’s favourite beatitudes:
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Sr Rosemary in 2012. Image: Supplied
In his homily, Fr Frank, a longtime friend of Sr Rosemary who had travelled with her to the Top End of Australia gathering artworks for one of her exhibitions, recounted her excitement at seeing a sculpture for the first time – ‘Mary of Warmun’, by the Indigenous artist George Mung Mung – sitting on the top of a hot water system in the community in the Kimberly where the artist lived. That sculpture is now considered by many to be one of the greatest images of Mary and her child produced anywhere in the world in the past century.
“She had such an eye for what was truly art”, Fr Frank said.
“She had such an ability to see the transcendent, but also to see you and to be present, immediately with her innate charm…she did such extraordinarily brave and courageous things.”
A gifted artist
Sr Rosemary was born in pre-World War II Bondi and joined the Sisters of Mercy at 18.
Mary of Warmun, by George Mung Mung
Leader of the Parramatta Sisters of Mercy Sr Margaret Jones rsm told the congregation that Sr Rosemary began her ministry as a primary school teacher at Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta in 1954 before moving to the high school a few years later.
“From those earliest years she showed herself as a gifted artist and is fondly remembered by many of her students,” she said, adding that during this time Sr Rosemary developed a religion text for senior students that “was in harmony with developments in Catechesis and teaching trends”.
In 1965, she joined the National Art School in Sydney as a student and part-time lecturer, and went on to teach visual arts and religion at the NSW Department of Education and the Catholic Education Office, Sr Margaret said. She also gained post graduate diplomas in Art Education and Religious Education at the University of Birmingham and Corpus Christi, in London.
Her Melbourne years
She moved to Melbourne in 1972 to take up a position at the National Pastoral Institute as a lecturer in Religious Education, Audio Visual and Adult Education. By 1983 she had become the Institute’s director.
She stayed in Melbourne for almost 50 years, returning to Sydney in 2020. The move back was “a dislocating experience requiring greater adjustment than I anticipated”, Sr Rosemary wrote in 2023.
In her earlier years as a Mercy sister. Image: Supplied
Over those nearly five decades in Melbourne, she curated some of the most important exhibitions on religious art ever seen in Australia, including Beyond Belief: Modern Art and the Religious Imagination, at the National Gallery of Victoria, in 1998; Images of Religion, also at the NGV, in 1988; and an exhibition of religious artworks by Aboriginal artists, held at the High Court of Australia, in 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, which included George Mung Mung’s Mary of Warmun, the sculpture that she and Fr Frank Brennan had seen on that trip to the Top End to source artworks for the exhibition.
Sr Rosemary authored or co-authored many books and articles about religious art over the years, including one on the 60th anniversary of the Blake Prize for religious art, as well as several about the exhibitions she had curated.
She was awarded a Doctor of Sacred Theology from the University of Divinity, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Australian Catholic University, in recognition of her contribution to art and art education as a teacher, artist and art historian.
Other awards included a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2001 for her services to the visual arts, education and the community. And in 2014 she received the Papal Cross for services to the Church, the Diocese of Parramatta and society, Sr Margaret said.
Sr Rosemary, in the green jumper, with family. Image: Supplied
In 2000, Sr Rosemary was appointed the principal art consultant on the restoration of Parramatta’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, which involved the commissioning and sourcing of artworks.
‘To live for others’
Sr Margaret told the congregation that despite Sr Rosemary’s many achievements she saw her life and her work as having a higher purpose.
“In her mid-years Rosemary shared that her ‘long-term goal was to respond faithfully to the call of the Gospel to live for others in God in ways discerned as Mercy’.
“And her immediate practical vision was to make available ‘who I am and have become at this point of life in ways that have integrity and may serve the Church (and so Mercy) in making the world a better place in some small way’.”
In her reflection, Erin Crumlin, Sr Rosemary’s niece, spoke of Sr Rosemary’s upbringing in Bondi surrounded by art, and the fond memories of visiting her aunt as a young novice in Parramatta.
Pictured in Manly 1947. Image: Supplied
She remembered Sr Rosemary as always being “impeccably dressed”, as well as being an “astonishing networker”, which came in handy at one point when one of her exhibitions faced being suddenly cancelled because of a lack of funding. Undeterred, she rang her friend Dame Elizabeth Murdoch, who promised to help if Sr Rosemary could convince Dame Elizabeth’s son (Rupert) to help too – which she did.
“I think Rosemary was one of the few people who had Anna and Rupert Murdoch on speed dial,” Erin said.
“The exhibition went ahead and it was a roaring success, of course.”
She said her aunt “was positive, optimistic and spontaneous”.
“She always made you feel more buoyant and hopeful.”
