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April 13, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – She is a joy to be around. Her constant, prayerful presence, sitting and keeping vigil with many of the Sisters as they lie dying.  Her great smile lights up every room she enters. She is committed to showing up every day with joy and gladness. She always looks out for everyone.

These are some of the many ways that Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and friends to describe Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan on the occasion of her 100th birthday. The spirit of gratitude, admiration, and love was present April 12, 2023, during a birthday celebration, which began with Mass in her honor.  

Birthday Celebration

Sister Sharon Spanbauer, Mission Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter based in Adrian, greeted the assembly, noting that Sister Miriam Joseph was joining the ranks of beloved Adrian Dominican centenarians. “We pray that Sister Miriam Joseph’s heart will be overflowing with joy, knowing the countless ways she blesses our daily lives,” Sister Sharon said.

In a reflection on the Gospel story of the risen Jesus’ encounter with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Sister Judy Friedel, OP, Chapter Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, noted the similarity between Jesus’ outreach to the disciples and Sister Miriam Joseph’s to the people she encounters. “Jesus and Miriam enjoy the vitality and wonder of communion with God’s people,” Sister Judy said. “May we endeavor to do so as well, even more consciously and eagerly these Easter days.”

Left: Sister Judy Friedel, OP, Chapter Prioress of the Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, offers a reflection during a special Mass on April 12, 2023, marking Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan’s 100th birthday; Center: Father James Hug, SJ, priest chaplain for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, greets Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan; Right: The assembly at Mass offers the traditional Dominican Blessing to Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan

During the afternoon celebration, Sister Judy read some of the many responses to the question of the importance of celebrating Sister Miriam Joseph’s 100th birthday. Sister Miriam Joseph also received a proclamation from Angela Sword Heath, Mayor of Adrian; a Pontifical Blessing from Pope Francis; more than 100 birthday cards; and two bouquets: one from Holy Rosary Mission Chapter and the other from St. Augustine Health Campus, a senior living facility in Cleveland where Sister Miriam Joseph ministered for many years.

Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, also paid tribute to her. “Such great love we have for you,” she told Sister Miriam Joseph. “I think you can feel that deep gratitude to you for the life you have given to so many of us and to so many people on God’s Earth.” Sister Elise also spoke of the blessing she received from Sister Miriam Joseph’s presence during daily Mass and her loving presence to the Sisters who are dying. 

Sister Miriam Joseph responded with heart-felt thanksgiving to all assembled for her birthday.

Left: Sister Judy Friedel, OP, Chapter Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, presents a proclamation from Adrian Mayor Angela Sword Heath to Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan; Right: Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, offers words of gratitude and appreciation to Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan. 

Sister Miriam Joseph’s Early Life

“Living a religious life is all planned for me, [involving] complete trust in God in every challenge that came up,” she said in an interview before the celebration. She expressed her “deep appreciation for all the friendships and the assistance that I had throughout all these years – and it doesn’t feel like 81 years as a nun and 100 years chronologically.”

Born on April 10, 1923, in Cleveland, Ohio, and baptized Josephine Bernadette Lekan, she was the ninth of the 12 children of Joseph and Frances (Perko) Lekan. Like most men in their neighborhood, Joseph worked in the American Steel and Wire Company. “Growing up during the Depression years, we all learned what it meant to live a life of hardship,” Sister Miriam Joseph said. 

The family was very happy when Josephine entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation in June 1942. “I went to school with Adrian Dominican Sisters for eight years” at St. Lawrence in Cleveland, Sister Miriam Joseph recalled. While attending Holy Name, a co-ed high school with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, she felt a call to religious life. She delayed entering the Adrian Dominican Congregation for a year so that she could spend time with her oldest brother, who was returning home from the seminary in Switzerland. 

Years in Mission

She took her religious name, Sister Miriam Joseph, when she was received into the novitiate on December 31, 1942. She professed first vows on January 4, 1944, and final vows on January 4, 1949. Sister Miriam Joseph received a bachelor's degree in Latin from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian in 1952 and a master's degree in Latin from DePaul University, Chicago, in 1959.

Sister Miriam Joseph spent the first 37 years of ministry in education and recalled the years when Adrian Dominican Sisters received an assignment to ministry every year in August. “Each appointment was kind of a challenge – not knowing what that new appointment was going to be and yet it always ended up in a happy ministry, wherever it was,” she said.

Education ministry took Sister Miriam Joseph to classrooms in Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and Ohio. While she enjoyed her time in all of the schools, two stand out in her memory. She was one of two Adrian Dominican Sisters sent to Grand Ledge – near Lansing, Michigan – to open St. Michael School. “I couldn’t believe when I was assigned to open a school,” she said. “The first summer I had to come to Adrian and take administration classes.”

She also has special memories of Bishop Quarter, a boarding school for boys in Oak Park, Illinois. “If you know anything about boarding school, you’re on duty 24 hours out of 24,” she said. She worked with the first- and second-grade students. She recalled one young student still awake after 10 p.m. because he couldn’t go to sleep. She asked if he was feeling lonesome. “He sat up and threw his arms around me,” she recalled. “That’s all he needed was giving a hug to someone besides his mother.”

During her last teaching assignment at St. Francis Xavier, Medina, Ohio, Sister Miriam asked for – and received – permission to train to be a licensed practical nurse. She studied at Lakewood School of Practical Nursing in Lakewood, Ohio, and, when she had passed the Boards, was hired at St. John Hospital in Cleveland. She worked there for eight years – until the hospital closed. She then worked for the newly established St. Augustine Health Campus, a senior living facility, until her retirement in July 2000. “I loved both teaching when I did it and I liked nursing,” Sister Miriam Joseph said. “It might be my inner liking to serve people.”

Sister Miriam said she was surprised to be turning 100. “I don’t look at the numbers,” she said. “I don’t think of it as 100. I’m just so grateful for these 81 years that I’ve been an Adrian Dominican. God was just in the divine plan for me, 81 years ago.”

View highlights from the celebration below.

 

April 5, 2023, Mining, Pampanga, Philippines – With great joy and a sense of celebration, Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, professed her Final (Perpetual) Vows on March 17, 2023, to Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, in a neighborhood chapel in the barangay (neighborhood) of Mining, Pampanga, the Philippines. 

Two young friends of Sister Meliza present a basket of fruit during the Offertory.
 

Celebrating with her were the Sisters of the Our Lady of Remedies Mission Chapter, based in Pampanga; two formal witnesses: Sister Jenny Fajardo, OP, Formation Director, and Sister Maria Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress; her family and friends; and people has ministered with. 

Also attending were four Adrian Dominican Sisters from the United States: Sister Elise; Sister Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; Sister Patricia Siemen, OP, former Prioress; and Sister Frances Nadolny, OP, former Administrator and General Councilor. Presiding at the Mass was Dominican Father Eugenio Cabillon, OP. 

Left: Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, with her immediate family; Right: Sisters Leizel Tedria, OP, left, and Marifi Lugtu, OP, right, both temporary professed Sisters, with Sister Meliza

“Final profession for me is the beginning of a life-long commitment to God, a covenant to fully commit myself to God’s mission and to follow the footsteps of Christ, fulfilling the God-given passions of my heart,” Sister Meliza said. “The Profession of Vows Liturgy is a blessing given by God, that I received with reverence and full responsibility. It is a divine celebration that sealed my promise with God, in witness of the public – whom I will serve until my last breath.”

Sister Meliza, the youngest of four and the only daughter of German Dominguez, Sr. and Leonila Arquillano, was born in the Philippines but met the Adrian Dominican Sisters while working as a machine operator in Taiwan while attending St. Joseph the Worker parish, where Sister Victoria Changcoco, OP, ministered. Sister Meliza later befriended Sister Maribeth Manguil, OP. 

“The Sisters became good friends to us migrant workers and helped us seek a deeper meaning in our life,” Sister Meliza said. She came to know the Sisters better while helping them at the diocesan center and felt the call to religious life, entering the Congregation in 2013. 

During her formation, Sister Meliza’s ministries have included service as Assistant to the Treasurer of Dominican School of Angeles City in Mining and as pastoral minister to the Aetas, the indigenous peoples of the Philippines, as well as to other people in need of a supportive presence. 

The Rite of Profession involved a formal examination of Sister Meliza by Sister Elise as to her resolve to grow in the love of God and neighbor and to be joined to the Adrian Dominican Congregation by perpetual profession. After the formal testimony of Sister Meliza’s readiness for Final Profession by Sister Yolanda, Sister Meliza lay prostrate as the assembly sang the Litany of Saints.

Left: Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, lies prostrate as the assembly sings the Litany of Saints; Right: Prioress Elise D. García, OP, presents the blessed profession ring to Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, signifying her lifelong commitment to Jesus Christ as a fully professed Adrian Dominican Sister

Sister Meliza then addressed Sister Elise, vowing obedience to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Dominic, and Sister Elise and her lawful successors, “according to the Rule of St. Augustine and the Constitution of the Sisters of St. Dominic of the Most Holy Rosary until death.” The Rite continued with the blessing and presentation of Sister Meliza’s profession ring as a sign of her fidelity to Jesus, and with the signing of the formal profession documents.

On behalf of the Dominican family and especially the Adrian Dominican Congregation, Sister Elise affirmed Sister Meliza’s perpetual profession. “We joyfully congratulate you and pray that God continues to inspire you to enter each day with a generous heart, in order to serve the call to seek truth, make peace, and reverence life,” she said. The Adrian Dominican Sisters in the assembly responded by promising Sister Meliza the “loving and grateful support of the community” and welcoming her into “the full and responsible participation in this life.”

Left: Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Congregation, calls forward Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, for the Rite of Final Profession; Center: Father Eugene Cabillon serves as presider at the Eucharistic Liturgy for Sister Meliza Arquillano’s Final Profession; Right: Sister Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress of Our Lady of Remedies Mission Chapter, testifies as to the readiness of Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, to profess her final vows

Sister Meliza is the first Adrian Dominican Sister whose vows Sister Elise received since she took office in October 2022. “It was very touching to receive Meliza’s final profession of vows in that lovely neighborhood chapel, the pews filled with her Sisters and family,” she said. “She beautifully witnessed her desire to respond to God’s call with a great clarity of heart and joyful spirit.”

For feature photo at top: Prioress Elise D. García, OP, receives the Final Profession of Vows of Sister Meliza Arquillano. Also present are formal witnesses Sister Jenny Fajardo, OP, Formation Director, left, and Sister Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress, second from right.