(1923-2019)

Some words to describe Sister Cecilia might be: prayerful, strong faith and commitment, people oriented, high energy, determination, love of people and life, live until you die!

This was how Sister Joanne Peters, Co-Chapter Prioress of the Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, began her eulogy for Sister Cecilia Marie Brown at Cecilia Marie’s Ritual of Remembering on January 15, 2019.

Sister Cecilia Marie was born Barbara Jane Mary Brown in Rockford, Illinois, on November 23, 1923. She was the fourth of six children born to William and Grace (Taylor) Brown. The oldest, Cecilia Marie, was who Barbara Jane took her religious name for when she entered the Congregation. Next came Gordon and Robert; then after Barbara Jane came Marilyn and finally Rosemary.

Barbara Jane attended two Rockford parish schools, St. Patrick School through fifth grade and then St. Peter School for sixth through eighth grade, and then went to Muldoon High School, where she met the Adrian Dominicans. The thought of becoming a sister had long been in her mind, but in her senior year – inspired by her home room teacher Sister Grace Alma Glendenning – she made the decision.

Read more about Sister Cecilia (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

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(1917-2019)

When she died on January 2, 2019, Sister Charles Christine Uhnavy was only six weeks away from a real milestone – her one hundred and second birthday.

Eunice Uhnavy was born on February 14, 1917, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Charles and Olive (Spitzig) Uhnavy. Charles was born in the U.S. to German immigrant parents, while Olive was born in Ontario, Canada.

Charles learned how to be a tailor from his father, who owned a business called The House of Fashions, and he took over the business when his father died. In her life story, Sister Charles Christine remembered her dad as a very good tailor who specialized in women’s clothing and especially liked to work on furs. She also recalled that he once made a cassock for Father Charles Coughlin, the noted radio priest who pastored the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan, the Uhnavys’ parish.

Charles and Olive had four children in all: Vivian, Eunice, Arlene, and Charles. After Vivian and Eunice were born, the family moved to Detroit, where Arlene was born, and in 1926 they moved to Royal Oak, where Charles came into the family.

(1931-2018)

When he was in his early twenties, James McKillop of Coalridge, Scotland, left his homeland for Australia to find work. Five years later, restless, he sailed to New Zealand for a new adventure and took up residence at a boarding house there. As it so happened, at about the same time a young lass from Wishaw, Scotland, Catherine Buchanan, came to New Zealand to find work to help support her mother, and rented a room at the same boarding house.

Three years later, James and Catherine got married, and a year after that the young couple moved to the U.S. and settled in Detroit, where James worked as a maintenance man. When Catherine became pregnant with their first child, she returned to her hometown so that her mother could help with the birth, and so it came to be that their oldest daughter, whom they also named Catherine, was born in Wishaw on September 10, 1931.

Mother and daughter returned to Detroit when little Catherine was about eight months old. Over time, five more children were born: Marguerite, Patricia, James, John, and Joseph. The family lived in St. Rose of Lima Parish until 1942 and then moved to nearby Grosse Pointe, where Catherine finished grade school and high school at St. Paul’s.

Read more about Sister Catherine (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

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(1959-2018)

As a child growing up in Angeles City, Philippines, Amelia Limiac Sarmiento was surrounded by the Catholic faith. Her parents, Jacobo Sarmiento and Susana Limiac, brought up their children with regular Sunday Mass and daily recitation of the Rosary. And, although she attended public grade school, she received regular catechetical instruction and even dreamed of becoming a catechist herself someday.

Amelia was born on January 22, 1959, the third of six children, all girls, born to Jacobo and Susana. Her siblings were Avelina, Teresita, Alicia, Linda and Carlota. After graduating from high school at Republic Central Colleges in Angeles City, she attended Holy Angel College (University), also in Angeles City, and graduated in 1979 with her bachelor’s degree in accounting. She then was able to fulfill her childhood desire to become a catechist and began working alongside the local Benedictine Sisters in their parish. During that time, in 1980, her father died.

The Benedictines quickly noticed her apostolic spirit and encouraged her to join them, and she spent six months as an aspirant with them. She chose not to continue that process because she decided she needed more time to discern God’s plan for her, but then Sister Rosita Yaya, of the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Remedies, came to the parish to talk with the young women about religious life, and Amelia began taking the required steps for possible entrance into that community. It was 1983.

Read more about Sister Amelia (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

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