'How Many of Us Will be Left?’ Catholic Nuns Face Loss, Pain

 

The daily lives of female religious workers in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, changed quickly in 2020. Increasingly, emails arrived with reports of new coronavirus infections among nuns¹ of their Roman Catholic order Felician Sisters around the country. Emergency medical vehicles arrived at the Greensburg center, or convent, where they lived. Long-time friends died. Prayers seemed to go unanswered.

"How many of us," thought Sister Mary Jeanine Morozowich, "will be left?"

The nuns do much unpaid² work in the community. In Greensburg, they teach, nurse and care for children in their quiet convent.

The Felician order in America has lost 21 nuns to COVID-19.

Vaccines³ provide hope for an end to those dark days. But the sadness created by the loss of so many fellow sisters is difficult.

"There's got to be a reason," Morozowich says of her survival. "What is God asking me to do?"

Before lives turned inward and face covers hid smiles, before the COVID-19 death count began, there were things you could count on at the Greensburg convent.

Like Sister Mary Evelyn Labik, who had been taught by the Felicians as a child. "Now I desire to be one of them," she wrote as she entered the convent in 1960.

She was a kindergarten teacher and a nurse's assistant. She also worked as a caregiver to disabled children and as a helper to older children in high school. Students called her Mama-E, for Evelyn. Many wrote to her long after they left school.

She lived in the small convent in a very small room for 26 years.

When Felician sisters at a convent in Livonia, Michigan, began going to the hospital last March, Labik became worried. On April 2, Sister Mary Luiza Wawrzyniak of Livonia died of COVID-19. It was Good Friday, a high holy day for Catholics in honor of the death of Jesus.

"My heart just leaped," said Sister Nancy Marie Jamroz, 79, who had known Wawrzyniak since entering the convent and was one of her closest friends.

On Easter Sunday, it was Sister Celine Marie Lesinski, a teacher, and Sister Estelle Printz. Then, Sister Thomas Marie Wadowski, and Sister Mary Patricia Pyszynski, who worked as a teacher for 60 years. Others were desperately⁴ sick.

The sisters were forced to stay in their small rooms all the time

Five sisters died the first week, five more the second week.

Each death was filled with sadness. Some sisters lost someone they had known since they were very young women, or with whom they had shared a home for tens of years.

The deaths were painful to hear about, but they came to a community that believes death is a time of comfort and salvation⁵. But each death broke a promise: No one dies alone.

As the end neared again and again, they could not hold their sister and say the Hail Mary, which has the words "Now and at the hour of our death."

And then, finally, after 13 died in Livonia, it appeared the worst was over.

Some convents remained locked down, but the Greensburg, Pennsylvania, convent found happiness in gathering⁶ for meals and morning and evening prayers. Then, they had a party.

Labik wore flowers to celebrate her 60th anniversary at the convent. There was a dinner in her honor. It was the last time they would gather together.

The second wave of coronavirus hit. It killed sisters in Buffalo⁷, New York; Enfield, Connecticut and in Greensberg.

"It was happening so fast," said Sister Mary Elizabeth Mackowiak, 76. She watched from her window in Buffalo when an emergency vehicle appeared. "It really was an awful, helpless feeling," she added.

Jamroz saw the "dark days" of the spring returning, and prepared to face the death of her dear friends.

"Some of them, you grow closer to than even your own blood siblings⁸," she said.

No women took final vows⁹ with the Felicians in 2020. There are now 455 sisters in North America.

During the pandemic, fifteen sisters died of other causes in addition to the 21 who died of COVID-19, including Sister Mary Evelyn Labik, who was so loved.

She was buried simply in the Franciscan tradition, wearing the ring she received when she took her vows.

"Deus meus et omnia," was written on the ring. "My God and my all."

She was the only sister to die in Greensburg.

Words in This Story

convent - n. a place where female Catholics live to devote their lives to God

kindergarten - n. the first year of school for a child

leap - v. to jump up

salvation - n. the state of being saved from sin or evil in the Christian¹⁰ faith

siblings - n. brothers and sisters of a person

vows - n. the reciting of holy orders to join a religious order

1 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

2 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

3 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

4 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

5 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

6 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

7 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

8 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

9 vows   

誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿

参考例句：

• Matrimonial vows are to show the faithfulness of the new couple. 婚誓体现了新婚夫妇对婚姻的忠诚。
• The nun took strait vows. 那位修女立下严格的誓愿。

10 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。