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(1939-2026)
Sister Barbara Cervenka, formerly known as Sister James Annette, died on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan. She was 86 years of age and in the 68th year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
Sister Barbara was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to James and Florence (Balzer) Cervenka. She graduated from Hoban Dominican High School in Cleveland and obtained a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Sister Barbara ministered for more than 44 years in education in Maybee, Detroit, Madison Heights, Adrian, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. This includes 11 years as a member of the faculty at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and 21 years as a member of the faculty at Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian, an Adrian Dominican sponsored institution. She served four years on the Congregation’s General Council.
Sister Barbara also ministered for almost 14 years as co-director at Con/Vida in Detroit. Con/Vida is a non-profit that promotes understanding of the diverse cultures, traditions, and history of the Americas through art. She became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in 2026.
Sister was preceded in death by her parents; her stepmother, Annette (Kawalac) Cervenka; and her sister, Sister Anita Marie Cervenka, SND. She is survived by other loving family members and her Adrian Dominican Sisters.
Visitation will be held from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, in the gathering space of St. Catherine Chapel. The Vigil Prayer will be held at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 4, 2026, in St. Catherine Chapel. A Funeral Mass will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, February 5, 2026. Prayers of Committal will be held in the Congregation Cemetery.
Those not attending services in person are welcome to participate via live stream at https://adriandominicans.org/Live-Stream.
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.
Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)
Note: To view recordings with closed captioning, they must be viewed on our public video library rather than through the links below.
Recording of Sister Barb's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Barb's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
LEFT: From left, Sister Mary Naomi (Anita) Cervenka, SND, and her blood sister, Sister Barbara Cervenka, OP. MIDDLE LEFT: Sister Barbara, creative art instructor at Siena Heights College, 1971-1978. MIDDLE RIGHT: 1956 graduate of Hoban Dominican High School, Cleveland, Ohio.
LEFT: Members of the 1978-1982 General Council are, L to R, Sisters Barbara Cervenka, Carol Johannes (Prioress), Carol Jean McDonnell, Catherine DeClercq, and Nadine Foley. RIGHT: Sister Barbara Cervenka with her father, James Cervenka, in his garden, 1975.
LEFT: Artists posing in INAI are: standing, from left, Sister Aneesah McNamee, Sister Nancyann Turner, and Mame Jackson and, seated in front, Sister Barbara Cervenka. MIDDLE: From left, Sisters Carol Johannes and Barbara Cervenka, 2020. RIGHT: Sister Barbara relaxes at an art exhibit in INAI.
LEFT: Celebrating Sister Barbara’s 80th birthday are, back row from left, Sisters Sharon Weber, Catherine DeClercq, and Barbara Cervenka and front row from left, Kathleen Griffiths and Sisters Nancyann Turner and Carol Johannes. RIGHT: From left, Mame Jackson and Sister Barbara Cervenka, friends and co-directors of Con/Vida: Popular Arts of the Americas.
Sister Barbara Cervenka stands in front of some of the 1,000 paintings of origami cranes that she created as a fund-raiser for the Dominican Sisters of Iraq after they fled from ISIS. The paintings were exhibited during the October 2017 Homecoming Weekend at Siena Heights University.
Members of the 2017 Diamond Jubilee December Reception Crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Frances Lombaer, Bernitha Glombowski, Evelyn Inez Montez, Patricia Siemen (Prioress), Mary Ann Phillip, Mary Therese Napolitan, and Joella Miller; middle row, from left, Sisters Janet Traut, Jude Van Baalen, Joan Kowalski, Barbara Cervenka, Patricia Brady, and Margaret Ann McGuiness; and front row, from left, Sisters Helen McAllister, Susan Elaine Kresse, Helen Diane McGuirt, Eunice Drazba, and Dorothea Gramlich.
Leave your comments and remembrances – if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link.
(1930-2026)
In preparing my autobiography, I recognize that it is all about God’s love for me that has been there, guiding my life. I am very grateful that I have loved and served people of all ages and received love in return. And it is God’s love that will carry me Home.
Sister Thérèse Haggerty’s autobiography began with her reflecting on how the hand of God had long prepared her to become an Adrian Dominican Sister even though she spent thirty-one years of religious life in a different congregation, and it ended with the paragraph cited above. In between lies a fascinating life story.
Thérèse Mary Haggerty was born July 24, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, to Hugh Alphonsus and Thérèse Ann (Fay) Haggerty, who was nicknamed Teddy. Both parents were of Irish descent; Hugh’s parents were born in County Donegal, Ireland, while Ann’s grandparents came from County Cork, Ireland, and settled in Boston.
Hugh, who left school in the sixth grade to help support his family, enlisted in the Army at age seventeen and was sent to France to fight in World War I. There, he was badly wounded and was actually thought to be dead until a nurse saw the sheet that was over him move.
He and Thérèse Ann met after the war on a train from Washington, D.C., to New York, when she was walking from one car to another, slipped, and he caught her. They were married in 1923 in Brooklyn.
The couple had two boys who both died in infancy before Thérèse was born. Before Thérèse arrived, her mother prayed to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus that if her baby was a girl and survived, she would name her Thérèse Mary. Even so, Thérèse’s nickname was always Peggy, after Thérèse Ann’s friend who was also named Thérèse but was called Peggy.
Two children followed Thérèse into the family: Hugh Aloysius (known as Buddy) and Helen Agnes. Hugh remarried two years after his wife died of cancer and three more children were born to him and Thérèse’s stepmother: Mary Jane, Patricia Ann, and Kathryn Marie.
Read more about Sister Thérèse (PDF)
Recording of Sister Thérèse's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Thérèse's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1982-2026)
In 1999, Father Theodore Kuchnirtz, OP, a German Dominican priest at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Tungkang, Taiwan, saw a need for outreach to the many members of his parish who were natives of the Philippines. Some were the wives of Taiwanese men, while others were immigrant workers.
The Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Remedies responded to Father Kuchnirtz’s call for a religious community native to the Philippines to undertake this ministry. And, in time, as other local priests saw the importance of this work, the ministry expanded to other places, including Kaohsiung, a city near Tungkang.
It was there, in 2013, that the Remedies Sisters, by that time part of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, first met a young Filipina named Meliza Arquillano, who was working in Taiwan for a semiconductor company. Meliza was introduced by a friend who knew she was interested in religious life to the Sisters missioned in the area – Sisters Victoria Changcoco and Maribeth Manquil – and, that October, returned to her homeland and entered the convent.
Meliza was born on October 7, 1982, in Cavite City in the southern Philippines. She was the youngest child born to German Dominguez and Leonilla Arquillano, following brothers German Jr., Roger, and Roland.
Read more about Sister Meliza (PDF)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI, 49221.
Recording of Sister Meliza's (and Sister Rosita's) Mass of Remembrance - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as."
(1935-2026)
Though Joan suffered a great deal in her life, she has been remembered by those who knew her best as one who cared for others and showed that care generously. She gave of herself with whatever she could do, whether it was driving someone to classes or getting something from the top shelf of a closet. … She could enjoy life and time with friends, giving them her beautiful smile.
Sister Carol Gross’s memorial Mass homily for Sister Joan Schroeder was a reflection on the unwavering, unconditional love of God for everyone and Sister Joan’s quest to know this God in her own life.
Born on July 5, 1935, in Chicago, Joan was the second child and only daughter of Clement and Genevieve (Coleman) Schroeder. Her four brothers were Richard, Lawrence, Edward, and Clement.
Her autobiography details a childhood that certainly had its challenges. Her father was a Chicago police officer who had a side job as a sheet metal worker, and so “for all purposes he was constantly out of the house either as a policeman or at his side job.” As for her mother, she had her hands full with caring for five children, four of them boys, essentially by herself.
Joan attended Queen of Angels School on Chicago’s north side, which was staffed by Adrian Dominican Sisters, and then St. Gregory High School. She was a good, hardworking student and a fine athlete, especially at baseball, and in her autobiography recalled her dad taking her to the store and letting her buy whatever she wanted – which she decided would be a beautiful black baseball bat. “He was so proud,” she said of her dad’s being able to buy the bat for her.
She graduated from St. Gregory in June 1953 and entered the Congregation later that month. When the new school year began a couple of months later, she was sent to St. Alphonsus School in Dearborn, Michigan, and spent the rest of her postulancy there. She was received as a novice that December and given the religious name Sister Francis Maureen.
Read more about Sister Joan (PDF)
Recording of Sister Joan's Memorial Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Joan's Ritual of Remembrance - After clicking the link, download the recording by right-clicking on the video choosing "Save video as."
Our Adrian Dominican cemetery with its circular headstones is a beautiful place of rest for women who gave their lives in service to God — and a peaceful place for contemplation and remembrance.
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