Rose Marie Boyancheck, CSJ
May 26, 1935 - October 1, 2025
Hard-working, creative, loved teaching others
Rose and Julius Boyanchek of St. Louis, welcomed their first child, a daughter whom they named Rose Marie. Her two sisters, Martha and Mary, and a brother, who died as an infant, completed the family. Her father, a hard-working man, owned a delicatessen. The family lived in rooms behind the store. In order to support his family, her father took off one day a year and that was Christmas day.
Rose Marie attended Seven Holy Founders school, taught by the Ursulines, and St. Elizabeth Academy, staffed by the Precious Blood Sisters. However, she was possibly drawn to the Sisters of Saint Joseph because her aunt, Sister Mary Rose Howard, was a Sister of St. Joseph. The CSJs became Rose Marie’s choice, so on September 15, 1953, she arrived at Carondelet Motherhouse. Rose Marie described her younger self as “shy, quiet, and sensitive” and that description seemed to continue to be true throughout her life. The habit and the name, Sister Mary Lucy, were received on March 19, 1954.
Sister Mary Lucy taught primary students throughout her teaching ministry, first at Holy Guardian Angels in St. Louis (1956) and then at St. Leo (1958), followed by St. Patrick in University City both also in Missouri. In 1962 she taught at St. Cecilia’s in Peoria, Illinois, and went back to Holy Guardian Angels in St. Louis, in 1964.
Then she returned to Illinois to teach at St. Viator, in Chicago (1965). The rest of her classroom ministries took place in St. Louis: St. Cecilia (1968), St. Gregory (1970), and St. Thomas of Aquin (1971). From 1974 to 1981, sister ministered as a houseparent at St. Joseph Hearing + Speech (previously known as St. Joseph Institute for Deaf), then taught there from 1981-1984. Sister Mary Lucy spent the next year as a library assistant at Immacolata.
Her next activity was quite different as she shared her skills of crafting/knitting/crocheting (1985-1994) at Nazareth Convent as well as at Carondelet Day Care (1989-1993). From 1993 to 2008, sister was involved in giving care to adults including working for CSJ Care (1999-2008). She then spent a year at the Carondelet Motherhouse in Our Lady’s Community continuing with her crafts, knitting and crocheting.
From 2009-2014, she lived alone while enjoying her skills, as well as sharing them whenever she was able to do so. She moved into the Village on the campus at Nazareth Living Center in 2014. Then, in 2019, she dedicated herself to the ministry of prayer and presence at Carondelet Manor, also on the campus of Nazareth Living Center.
By Sister Helen Oates