Sister Carmella Conway OPSister Carmella Conway, OP entered eternal life on January 2, 2020 at the age of 97 after 78 years of religious life.

We commend Sister Carmella to your prayers.

Evening Prayer with Remembering Service:
Monday, January 6 at 7:00 pm
Dominican Chapel at Marywood

Funeral Mass:
Tuesday, January 7 at 11:00 am
Dominican Chapel at Marywood

The one point I would ever stress is God’s Infinite Goodness to me and my love and gratitude to Him.

Rita Rose was born September 19, 1922 in the region of Watson Township in Allegan County. Her parents Blanche Durand and William Hugh Conway provided their family of seven children with a strong faith through their daily lives and the mission parish to which they belonged. At an early age little Rita, the fourth of the seven, indicated a desire to become a religious Sister even though she had only seen pictures of a Sister and had never actually met one.

Rita entered the small rural Miner School at the age of five and completed all eight grades by the time she was eleven years old. She then determined to go to a Catholic high school and when that didn’t seem possible due to distance and cost, she decided instead to delay further education and found work in the neighborhood and within the family. Meanwhile she prayed daily for an answer to her prayer for a Catholic high school education.

While away from home helping her older sister, who had just had a baby, two Dominican Sisters arrived in Allegan on a recruiting mission. The pastor, who knew of Rita’s desire to become a Sister, let the Conway parents know of this visit and within two weeks, at the age of thirteen Rita arrived at Marywood to begin her high school education as an aspirant (a Marywood Academy high school student who aspires to enter religious life upon graduation). Four years later in 1940, she graduated as salutatorian of her class. Her postulancy began in September but was interrupted six months later when her father became critically ill. Rita went home to assist her mother for three months, returning to Marywood after her father’s death. On August 18, 1941 she received the habit and the name of Sister Mary Carmella of the Blessed Sacrament.

†Sister Carmella Conway, OP