Sister Mary Ann Nowicka, 90, who spent more than 70 years as a dedicated Little Servant Sister of the Immaculate Conception, including ministry in the Diocese of Camden, died Sept. 7 at Saint Joseph Nursing Home in Woodbridge.
A viewing service will take place from 9-11 a.m. on Sept. 11 at the Chapel of Saint Joseph Senior Home in Woodbridge, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial. Interment will take place at Saint Joseph Cemetery in Blackwood.
Born March 24, 1935, in Konin, Poland, Sister Mary entered her congregation in 1953, became a novice the following year, and made her first vows in 1956. She made her final vows in 1959.
Beginning as a preschool teacher and later sacristan and seamstress in Sanok (Eastern Poland), she was sent to Zambia as a missionary in 1969. There, she studied English, taught sewing and embroidery to students, and became the local superior.
She then went to the order’s motherhouse in Cherry Hill, and in the late 1970s, she began ministering in Holyoke, Mass., working in parishes and schools while completing an associate’s degree. She also opened a kindergarten.
In 1988, she was assigned to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Milltown, where she taught second-graders at its school for seven years. From 1994 to 1996, she taught at Saint Matthew School in National Park, then returned to Our Lady of Lourdes for six years. Amidst all of her service, she earned a bachelor’s degree.
She retired from active ministry, but then realized she had more to give. “I still wanted to do something,” she said in a 2023 article for The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper for the Diocese of Metuchen. “I didn’t want to sit still and wait for death.”
So, in 2002, she began ministering to Saint Mary’s Nursing Home in Cherry Hill, serving as sacristan, distributing Communion, assisting in activities, leading discussion groups and visiting with residents and families.
She retired to the provincialate in Cherry Hill in 2013; in 2021, went to Saint Joseph Senior Home in the Diocese of Metuchen.
The Catholic Spirit contributed to this article.
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