Sr. Mary Cynthia Strzalkowski, 16th provincial minister of the Livonia province and ninth minister general of the Franciscan Felician Sisters Congregation, completed her life’s journey of 81 years on Sept. 6 in St. Joseph Convent’s Health Care Center.

The former Irene Therese Strzalkowski, the only child of Anthony and Antoinette Jaszcz, was born in Detroit on July 6, 1931, and was baptized July 19 in St. Hyacinth Church, where she was later confirmed on May 25, 1941, by the Most Rev. Stephen Woznicki. She attended St. Hyacinth Elementary School and Felician Academy where the total dedication of the Felician Sisters sparked her interest in religious life. Ten days after graduating from Felician Academy, she entered the postulancy of the Felician Sisters in Livonia on June 19, 1949.

Bishop Woznicki, her pastor, who would become the bishop of the Saginaw diocese in 1950, gave her a letter of recommendation. Sr. Strzalkowski’s first three teaching assignments were in elementary schools: St. Michael in Livonia; Corpus Christi in Detroit and St. Valentine in Redford. A 1958 graduate of Madonna (College) University, she earned two master’s degrees: one in music from the University of Notre Dame, and another in mathematics from the University of Stanford. From 1957-72 she taught mathematics and music at the high school level at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Wyandotte; St. Florian, Hamtramck; Patronage of St. Joseph, Detroit; and Ladywood High School in Livonia. From 1972-77 she was high school principal at St. Andrew in Detroit.

In 1977 she was elected to the provincial council of the Livonia province and served as director of education until 1982, after which she was elected to serve as that province’s provincial minister until 1988. In 1988, she was elected to serve as the Felician Congregation’s ninth minister general and was re-elected for a second six-year term in 1994.

April 18, 1993, was a day of great joy for all Felician Sisters around the world when Pope John Paul II beatified Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska, Foundress of the Felician Congregation, a process that began in 1949 and which Sr. Strzalkowski brought to successful culmination the years of persistent work brought to fruition.