Sister Febronia Jarosz, 102, of the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Passes Away

Sister Febronia Jarosz, of the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, fortified by the Rites of Holy Church, died at the age of 102 on July 3, 2024 at St. Joseph’s Nursing Home, Woodbridge, after 87 years in religious life.
 
Sister Febronia was born Bronislawa Jarosz in Suchy Grunt, Dabrowa County, Poland on September 26, 1921. She joined the Little Servant Sisters in 1937 in Stara Wies, Brzozow County. After initial formation she made her first vows in 1940 and her final vows in 1945. Sister Febronia studied nursing during World War II, and then served as head surgical nurse in Gorlice County Hospital from 1943 to 1963. Called to South Africa, Sister Febronia served as a nurse, directress of a home for children and a preschool in Johannesburg. She was the superior of the local community from 1966 to 1972.
 
A new chapter was opened when Sister Febronia was appointed superior provincial of the American Province from 1972 to 1984 at St. Joseph Convent in Woodbridge, and after three years in South Africa, again from 1987 to 1996 at the new Provincialate in Cherry Hill. As superior provincial, in 1973 the hall in Woodbridge became Strawberry Hill Senior Day Center until its unavoidable demolition in 2006.
 
With her community and the help of supporters, she planned and accomplished the construction and operation of St. Joseph Senior Home in Woodbridge – Assisted Living in 1981 and adjacent Nursing Home in 1992, and Blessed Edmund Early Childhood Center in Cherry Hill in 1996, opened other institutions, and sent the Little Servant Sisters to five diocesan schools, including in Our Lady of Lourdes School in Milltown where they served for forty years.
 
Sister Febronia next served as community bursar till 1999, then as home nurse till 2002. After so many seasons of activity, Sister Febronia spent her last years in prayer ministry in her quiet, gracious way with her smile, and came to St. Joseph Senior Home in Woodbridge in 2021.
 
Her religious community remembers Sister Febronia as a “humble, gentle, wise and cheerful religious with great trust in Divine Providence, whose faithful life and service of many years has been a blessing to our congregation, marked by her love of Jesus, community and people whom she remembered in prayer.”
 
Sister Febronia is survived by her religious community, her nieces and nephews in Poland, France and the United States.
 
The Viewing and concelebrated Mass of Christian Burial were held on July 10, 2024 at the Provincialate Chapel, Cherry Hill. Father Zbigniew Majcher, S.D.B, Chaplain, was the presider and homilist. He thanked God for the small gift that He shared in the person of Sister Febronia, whose deepest desire was to live in Christ Jesus all the days of her life, for almost 103 years. The Internment took place at St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Chews Landing.
 
Memorial contributions may be sent to the Little Servant Sisters, 1000 Cropwell Road, Cherry Hill, NJ, 08003.