13 nuns from same convent outside Detroit die of COVID-19

Thirteen nuns at a Roman Catholic convent in Livonia, Michigan, have died of COVID-19 complications since the outbreak began, 22 percent of its residents, said a spokeswoman for the Felician Sisters of North America.

Seventeen nuns recovered at the convent 17 miles west of Detroit, Suzanne Wilcox English said Tuesday.

Those who died ranged in ages from 69 to 99, according to CNN.

“Hand washing, mask wearing, social distancing and regular disinfecting will remain staples of our routines,” Sister Mary Christopher Moore, provincial minister in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, said on July 8.

The sisters were longtime members of the convent and leave behind a legacy of service, according to their obituaries and the CNN report. They all served others through different roles, from teaching to helping at-risk children to playing music to publishing a 586-page book about the history of the convent.

One sister won a commercial script-writing contest for Campbell’s Soup with her second-grade class. Another was assigned to the Felician Generalate in Rome twice and worked as secretary in the English section of the Vatican Secretariat of State.