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(1928-2022)
Sister Cyrilla Zarek, baptized as Mary Eileen Zarek, died on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian. She was 93 years of age and in the 75th year of her religious profession: over 22 years in the Nashville Dominican Congregation and in her 51st year with the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
Sister Cyrilla was born in Chicago to Michael and Cyrilla (Connor) Zarek. She graduated from Saints Peter and Paul High School in Chicago and received a bachelor’s degree in English from Siena College in Memphis, Tennessee, and a master’s degree in Administration/Education from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian.
Sister ministered for more than 14 years in elementary education in Nashville, Jackson, Chattanooga, Oak Ridge and Memphis, Tennessee, and two years in Flossmoor, Illinois. She served six years as an elementary principal in Joelton and Galletin, Tennessee, and two years in Hampton, Virginia.
Sister Cyrilla ministered for one year as a nursing assistant in Matteson, Illinois; for three years as a pastoral associate and two years as a director of pastoral education, both in Chicago; for six years as pastoral minister/theology reflector in Chicago; and six years as director of pastoral care at the Maria Health Care Center in Adrian. In addition, she ministered for more than 11 years as hospital chaplain at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, and two years at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago. She also volunteered for the New Orleans Project in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Sister Cyrilla became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in Adrian in 2020. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Cyrilla Zarek, and a brother, Patrick. She is survived by other loving family members and her Adrian Dominican Sisters.
Due to COVID-19 mitigation protocols, the Dominican Life Center is closed to guests or visitors until further notice. All are welcome to participate in Sister’s wake and funeral via live stream.
Rite of Committal (burial) for Sister Cyrilla was held on April 28, 2022, in the Congregation Cemetery. A Memorial Mass will be on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at 10:30 a.m. in St. Catherine Chapel, followed at 1:30 p.m. by the Ritual of Remembering in the Rose Room at the Dominican Life Center.
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.
Sister's Prayer Card (PDF)
Worship Aid (PDF)
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Left: Mary Eileen Zarek, the future Sister Cyrilla, celebrates her First Holy Communion with her brother Patrick; her sister Cyrilla; and her uncle, Father Andrew Zarek. Right: Sister Cyrilla and members of her family attend the 25th anniversary of her uncle, Monsignor Andrew Zarek.
Left: Sister Cyrilla’s father visits her and two students on her 21st birthday at her first mission, St. Joseph School in Jackson, Tennessee.
Left: Back row, from left, Sisters Mary Rita McSweeney, Sally Ann Fergus, Cyrilla Zarek, and Norine Burns, and seated in front, Sister Jane Zimmerman. Right: Sister Cyrilla Zarek checks up on a family in New Orleans during volunteer work after Hurricane Katrina.
Left: Sisters Cyrilla Zarek, left, and Dorothy “Dot” Dempsey participate in a Nuns’ Build in New Orleans, helping to restore homes that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Right: Sisters Cyrilla Zarek, left, and Jane Zimmerman in St. Catherine Chapel during the 2009 Diamond Jubilee celebration.
Left: Sister Cyrilla Zarek, right, with her sister Cyrilla. Right: Members of the 2017 Double-Diamond December Crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Shirley Mary Heymes, Patricia Siemen (Prioress), Jeanne Burns, Shirley Thielk, Mary Saynay, and Marcine Klemm and front row, from left, Sisters Theresa Nightingale, Margaret Lane, Kathleen Therese McCann, Janet Persyk, and Cyrilla Zarek.
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(1930-2022)
“… [A] gentle woman who loved children and her ministry of teaching both children and adults.” This was how Sister Peggy Coyne, Adrian Crossroads Chapter Prioress, described Sister Theresa Nightingale at Sister Theresa’s wake service.
The oldest child of Lawrence and Christina (Schmidt) Nightingale entered the world on November 19, 1930, in West Terre Haute, Indiana, and was baptized Theresa Mae. Seven more children would be born to the couple over time: five brothers (Joseph, William, Gerald, Virgil, and Richard) and two sisters (Marjorie and Florence).
Lawrence was the fourth oldest of fourteen children, and when he was just nine years old, he quit school in order to work and help support the family. He worked in the coal mine located at the Sisters of Providence motherhouse in Terre Haute. He and Christina met as teenagers and married when he was twenty and Christina was nineteen. According to Sister Theresa’s biography, Lawrence’s family was the only Catholic one in West Terre Haute and all the other families belonged to the Baptist church – which was pastored by Christina’s father.
Lawrence soon moved to Detroit to find a better-paying job and went to work at the Hudson Motor Car assembly plant, sending money home to Christina, who remained in Indiana with her parents. Not long after Theresa’s birth, mom and baby joined Lawrence in Detroit. The family lived in Guardian Angels Parish, and it was there that Theresa began school in 1935.
Read more about Sister Theresa (PDF)
(1929-2022)
Of the six girls born to John and Agnes (Rose) Klemm of Des Moines, Iowa, three went on to become Adrian Dominican Sisters: Charlotte, who became Sister Jeannine; Helen, who became Sister Jean Agnes; and Jeannine, known in religion as Sister Marcine.
Born May 29, 1929, Jeannine Therese Klemm was the youngest of twelve Klemm children in all. The oldest were twins Agnes and Mary; then came another set of twins, John and Joseph, who died two months apart as infants; and then Francis, Cecilia, Charlotte, Helen, Jimmie, Dickie, Johnny, and Jeannine.
All ten of the surviving children attended St. Augustin School, where they were educated by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. “Many are the tales that the Sisters can tell about the escapades with the Klemm children,” Sister Marcine wrote in one of her St. Catherine letters. Charlotte and Helen both left home to join the Congregation when Jeannine was in first grade, and she spent most of her time with the three brothers closest in age to her. “I walked back and forth to school with them, played with them, climbed trees, made airplanes, made orange crate derby cars and everything else that boys do,” she wrote. “Football, baseball, ice-skating, and snowballing were the seasonal activities that we indulged in.”
Read more about Sister Marcine (PDF)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.
Worship Aid (PDF) and Maori Lord's Prayer (PDF)
(1939-2022)
For most of my adult life, I have prayed that the Holy Spirit would lead and guide me and I would always be listening with an open and loving heart. Much of my prayer is filled with gratitude for all I have been given over so many years.
This paragraph was how Sister Diane McGuirt concluded an autobiography filled with examples of just where the Spirit had taken her over the course of her life: into the Congregation, through years of teaching, and eventually into ministry to some of Appalachia’s most marginalized residents.
Helen Diane McGuirt was born in Chicago on October 18, 1939, to Paul and Dorothy (Henley) McGuirt. Her first name was for her paternal grandmother, but her parents chose to call her Diane. About five years after Diane’s birth, a sister, named Mary Ina after Dorothy’s mother, joined the family.
The McGuirts had moved into St. Rita Parish by the time Mary Ina was born, and both children attended the parish school, which is how Diane first met the Adrian Dominican Sisters. The girls went on to Aquinas Dominican High School, and it was during her junior year there that Diane knew she was called to religious life.
Read more about Sister Helen Diane (PDF)
Our Adrian Dominican cemetery with its circular headstones is a beautiful place of rest for women who gave their lives in service to God — and a peaceful place for contemplation and remembrance.
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