A Michigan convent is grieving the loss of 13 nuns after a coronavirus outbreak swept through its ranks.
The convent, located in Livonia, Michigan, had a dozen of the sisters die in just one month between Good Friday and May 10. A thirteenth nun later died from coronavirus-related complications. A total of 18 other nuns were sickened during the health crisis.
“In the United States, the 13 Felicians lost in Livonia may be the worst loss of life to a community of women religious since the 1918 influenza pandemic,” according to Global Sisters Report, which noted that because of the stringent COVID-19 restrictions put in place, many of the sisters of those who died have not yet begun the grieving process.
“I get chills thinking about that,” said Sr. Mary Andrew Budinski, referring to the future when their formally 65-person convent will once again be together as a group and witness the scale of their loss. “The raw grief is yet to come, I think.”
The 360-acre convent property, which once housed some 800 nuns in the 1960s, is now much smaller. The first floor of one of the main buildings, St. Joseph Hall, houses sisters who need around-the-clock care. The second floor is designed for assisted living, and the top floor is independent living space for the nuns. Andrew said that the virus is believed to have entered the facility from essential staffers who work there.
“I first heard two aides had contracted the virus,” she recounted. “We don’t know who they are, and we don’t want to know. Then it hit sisters on the second floor, and it went through like wildfire.”
Sr. Nancy Jamroz described the isolation the women felt and how overwhelming it was when their sisters began dying. She said that they had to learn about the deaths over the intercom during the covenant’s 1 p.m. announcements.
“You started to become numb,” Jamroz said. “You were caught between the Twilight Zone and la-la land. … When this is death No. 8, this is No. 9, it just became a numbing participation.”
The sisters who died ranged in age from 69 to 99 and included teachers, a librarian, an author of a 586-page book about the congregation’s history, and a secretary in the Vatican Secretariat of State. The remaining women say that reemerging from the pandemic will be difficult for everyone.
“We haven’t been together enough to know how, but we’re different people than we were in March,” said Sr. Mary Ann Smith. “None of us are the same.”
