Maryknoll, NY: Sister Cecilia LeBlanc died on April 17, 2025 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY. She was 101 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 82 years.
On April 9, 1924, Cecilia Mabel LeBlanc was born in Boston, MA to Alfred and Catherine MacEachern LeBlanc. She had one brother and one sister; all have predeceased her. Four nieces survive her.
From 1939 to 1943, Sister Cecilia attended St. Patrick’s High School in Roxbury, MA. She entered the Maryknoll Sisters at Maryknoll, NY on September 7, 1943 from her parish, St. Patrick. She pronounced her First Profession of Vows on March 7, 1946 in Maryknoll, NY and her Final Vows on March 7, 1949 in Monrovia, CA.
She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education in 1969 from Mary Rogers College, Maryknoll, NY. She then attended State University College at New Paltz, NY, earning a Master of Arts degree in English Literature in 1971.
In 1947, her first assignment was to the Maryknoll seminary kitchen in Ossining, NY for one year, followed by another year in the seminary kitchen in Mountain View at Los Altos, CA. Her next assignment in 1948 was to the Maryknoll Sisters TB hospital ran in Monrovia, California, where she would help to prepare meals for very sick people for the next nine years.
Cecilia’s first mission in 1957 was to Kowak, Tanzania where her primary assignment was to study the Luo language. She was also engaged in pastoral ministry and she lost no time in visiting the villages to meet the people to introduce herself. It was an experience that left a major impact on her life as assuredly as it did on the people she had met and served.
Equipped with her degrees, Cecilia’s next assignment in 1971 was to the all-boys Isoka Secondary School in Zambia. She taught third year high school and was also responsible for the overall academic scheduling. She loved the ministry, but Cecilia’s time at Isoka would be short-lived as she needed to return to the United States in 1973 for medical reasons.
Two years later, in 1975, she applied to transfer to the Eastern United States Region. She had originally intended to return to Africa, but for family and personal reasons, she decided instead that it would be better for her to remain in the States.
For the next thirty-eight years of her active life, from 1975 until she came to the Chi Rho Community at Maryknoll, NY in 2013, Cecilia gave her all to make God’s love visible in New Hampshire, in Connecticut, and in the myriad ways in which she participated in the Eastern U.S. Region, as well as in the wider congregation. She taught in several schools and received high praise for her poise, her sense of humor, empathy, enthusiasm, and dedication. In 1987, she branched out, tutoring inmates for their GED at the Belknap County Jail and teaching English as a Second Language to Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants.
Throughout her teaching years, she challenged herself, taking workshops or seminars in Developmental Disabilities and Working with Parents of Children with Disabilities. From 1988-2004, she served as the Receptionist/Secretary for the New Hampshire Catholic Charities, a course in computer skills became a necessity. In the early 1990s, to prepare well for her volunteer ministry with older people and for her time in Family Ministry in 1994, she took courses on Current Issues in Aging and Gerontology.
Having begun her mission life in pastoral ministry in Tanzania, she brought her active mission life full circle in the EUS Region serving on Pastoral Councils, as a Eucharistic Minister at Assisted Living and Retirement Homes, reaching out to the Homebound, being active in RCIA, Bible Study Groups and in Bereavement Ministry.
In 2013, Cecilia returned to Maryknoll, NY contributing to the Chi Rho Community. The EUS Region sent Cecilia with their blessing, endorsing her as a gentle, creative, and thoughtful member who would be greatly missed and who would be a great blessing to the Community. She continued to share her many talents as long as she could, serving as a member of the Home Care Chapel Liturgical Music Team until 2019.
Funeral Services:
A Vespers Service was held for Sister Cecilia LeBlanc on May 8, 2025 at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.
A Memorial Mass was held on May 9, 2025 at 10:00 A.M. at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.