13 sisters have died from coronavirus in one Michigan convent. ‘Our most tragic time’
Tragedy struck a Michigan convent, where 13 women in a convent have died from COVID-19 complications, according to media reports.
Twelve of the sisters from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice in Livonia died from April 10 to May 10, according to Susanne English with the Felician Sisters of North America. A 13th woman, who initially recovered from the virus, died June 27, she said.
The sisters in the convent are also known as the Felician Sisters, and they live and work together, according to the Global Sisters Report.
The women who died ranged in age from 69 to 99. They include teachers, principals, librarians, a nurse, historian, director of a school for children with disabilities and a college president, among other vocations.
“We couldn’t contain the grief and the sorrow and the emotional impact,” Sr. Noel Marie Gabriel, director of clinical health services for the Felician Sisters of North America, told the Global Sisters Report. “We went through the motions of doing what we had to do, but that month was like a whole different way of life. That was our most tragic time. It was a month of tragedy and sorrow and mourning and grieving.”
Gabriel said in a statement to McClatchy News that 17 others at the convent have recovered from their coronavirus symptoms.
Sr. Mary Christoper Moore, provincial minister for the convent, said earlier this month “hand washing, mask wearing, social distancing and regular disinfecting” will continue to be routine in the convent.
After 11 sisters from the convent died in April, the sisters remained “hypervigilant” and were in quarantine, Moore wrote. Sisters are now allowed to leave convent grounds for appointments, errands and travel, she said.
The 13 deaths “may be the worst loss of life to a community of women religious since the 1918 influenza pandemic,” according to the Global Sisters Report.
More than 6,300 people have died from coronavirus in Michigan as of Tuesday, according to the state health department. The state has recorded the seventh-most deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.
As the virus spread in the Michigan convent, Sr. Gabriel told Inside Edition “it was the point of no return.”
Karen Sanborn, a spokeswoman for Madonna University, founded by the sisters, said of the sisters’ deaths: “It’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking,” according to Bridge Michigan.
The Felician Sisters from the Livonia convent who died from coronavirus:
▪ Mary Luiza Wawrzyniak, 99
▪ Celine Marie Lesinski, 92
▪ Mary Estelle Printz, 94
▪ Thomas Marie Wadowski, 73
▪ Mary Clarence Borkoski, 83
▪ Mary Patrcia Pyszynski, 93
▪ Rose Mary Wolak, 86
▪ Mary Janice Zolkowski, 86
▪ Mary Alice Ann Gradowski, 73
▪ Victoria Marie Indyk, 69
▪ Mary Martinez Rozek, 87
▪ Mary Madeleine Dolan, 82
▪ Mary Danatha Suchyta, 98
