Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 5, 2020 / 14:00 pm
At least seven Felician sisters from a single community in Michigan died due to coronavirus in April. As the Church in the United States continues to count the human cost of the pandemic, the body of the first Catholic priest in the United States to die from the virus is being repatriated to his native Mexico for burial.
During the month of April, 11 Felician Sisters of Livonia, Michigan died, including two who died on Easter Sunday. A spokesperson from the order told CNA that seven of the deceased sisters had COVID-19, and tests are pending for several others.
According to their Facebook page, one sister, Sr. Mary Patricia Pyszynski, 93, had been in hospice for the past year and died on April 17 for reasons unrelated to the virus.
The youngest Felician sister to die in Livonia last month was Sr. Victoria Marie Indyk, 69, who died on April 26. Indyk had been diagnosed with COVID-19. The eldest was Sr. Mary Luiza Wawrzyniak, 99. Wawrzyniak, who died on April 10, had been a Felician sister for 80 years, and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while as a novice sister.