Sister Jane Zawadzki Maryknoll Sister for 66 Years Dies

Maryknoll, NY: Maryknoll Sister, Jane Zawadzki M.M., died on August 3, 2017 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. She was 88 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 66 years.

Jane was born in Brooklyn, NY on April 20, 1929 to Angela Wioncek and John Zawadzki. She had three brothers: Matthew, John and Joseph and four sisters: Agnes, Stella, Natalie and Carolyn.   Her parents, brothers John and Matthew and sisters Agnes and Natalie have predeceased her.

Jane graduated from Girls’ High School in Brooklyn in 1947, after graduation she worked at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as a clerk for three years.  On September 6, 1950 she entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation from Our Lady of Consolation Parish in Brooklyn. She made her First Profession of Vows was on March 7, 1953 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center and her Final Profession of Vows on March 7, 1959 while on mission in Siuna, Nicaragua.

Sister Jane attended Maryknoll Teachers College and earned a Bachelor of Education in 1956; that same year she received her overseas assignment to Central America to teach. She studied the Spanish language at Siuna, Nicaragua and taught primary grades at the Siuna Mission School, from 1957 to 1961. In 1965 she was assigned to Colegio San Vicente, in Ancon, Panama until 1973.  Then moved to St. Mary’s Mission in Ancon, teaching in grades 1 to 5 and in the CCD Programs.

In 1984 she was awarded The Master Key to the Locks of the Panama Canal in recognition of her service.  She then returned to the U.S. to the Maryknoll Sisters Center to do Congregational Service in the Treasury Department for three years.  In 1987 Sister Jane returned to Las Mañanitas in Panama, a fast growing area at the southeastern end of Panama City. There she served in parish ministry, helped form bible study groups and basic Christian communities, worked with dedicated lay women and men, overseeing liturgy, catechetical program, sacramental preparation and a youth group, visiting the sick.

In 2015, Sister Jane returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center and volunteered her services in the Maryknoll Sisters Home Care Unit with elderly Sisters, until she herself became a patient of the unit shortly before her death.

Sister Jane willed her body to medical science.

A Vespers service will be held in the Annunciation Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY on Thursday, August 10, 2017 at 4:15PM.

A Memorial Mass will be held in the Annunciation Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY on Friday, August 11, 2017 at 11:00AM