Sister Mary Agatha Cebula

Sister Mary Agatha served her religious community for 77 years.
November 4, 1929 — December 30, 2024

Helen Cebula, the youngest of five children, two boys and three girls, was born to Raymond Cebula and Agatha Babiuch on November 4, 1929, in Reading, Pennsylvania. The children were enrolled in Saint Mary Grammar School, where the Felician Sisters taught them about their Catholic Faith and instilled moral values.

Helen admired the sisters and absorbed all their stories. Even though she attended Mount Alvernia High School, she did not forget the Felician Sisters and decided to follow them. Her older sister Ann had already joined the Felician sisters.

On July 16, 1947, she entered the postulancy of the Felician Sisters in Lodi, New Jersey. After that year of transition, she began her novitiate, donning the Felician habit and receiving the name Sister Mary Agatha. On August 13, 1949, she pronounced her temporary vows, and six years later, on August 13, 1955, she pronounced her final vows.

For nine years, she taught the lower grades in Felician schools in New Jersey. She opted for the field of Nursing and began studies in 1957 at the St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She achieved her RN in 1960 and was sent to Blackwell General Hospital, Blackwell, Oklahoma. She was assigned as an instructor of the LPN Program.

In 1964, she was transferred to Saint Joseph Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and became the supervisor in the emergency room, where she remained for two years.

Extremely versatile in all areas of Nursing, she moved back to Blackwell as the Nursing Supervisor. Simultaneously, she studied and completed a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology at Sacred Heart College, Wichita, Kansas, in 1962.

She pursued further studies and earned a Master of Science Degree in Nursing at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, with a certificate in Midwifery and Newborn Nursing. Always eager to keep abreast in her field, she participated in a vast array of diverse nursing workshops and conferences. Sister Agatha also completed a correspondence course in Hospital Management.

The Catholic Health Association lauded her skills as an effective administrator. She was admitted as a member of the American College of Health Care Administrators. She was also appointed to the Catholic Health Care Review Committee of Philadelphia by Cardinal Bevilacqua, Archbishop of Philadelphia.

In 1974, Sister Agatha moved to New Jersey to join the faculty of Felician College. From 1974 to 1980, she served as an Assistant Professor in the Associate Nursing Program. In 1985, she accompanied nursing students to the Yucatan Peninsula in a program designed to expose the students to an international experience.

From 1974 to 1978, while teaching at Felician College, she also ministered as a nurse for the children in the Felician School for Exceptional Children. From 1980 to 1986, Saint James Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, benefited from her ministry as the Supervisor of the Maternity Department and Assistant Director of Nursing. While at Saint James, Sister Agatha demonstrated her innovative leadership abilities by helping to develop a curriculum for Brazilian nurses preparing for the New Jersey State Board of Nursing examination.

In 1986, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia entrusted the stewardship of Saint Ignatius Nursing Home to the Felician Sisters. Sister Agatha was assigned the responsibility of leadership.

Her newest leadership responsibility drew all her talent and capabilities to fulfill this mission of Saint Ignatius Nursing Home. Deeply devoted to Blessed Mary Angela and her charism, she sought courage from our foundress. For eighteen years, she inaugurated many physical accomplishments, in renovations, in technology, in modalities of care to make Saint Ignatius a home with a heart.

During her term she sponsored the initiation of Angela Court I and II, low-income housing for the poor who needed assistance and not skilled care. The new facility answered one of West Philadelphia’s greatest needs.

Her outstanding contributions were well noted when she was honored by the Associates of the Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute of Philadelphia at a luncheon in Morristown, where she received the Saint John Neumann medallion. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree by Felician College in 2002. In 2005, Sister Agatha resigned as Administrator of Saint Ignatius and assumed the position of Mission Integration for the next nine years to ensure the legacy of love and care for the residents. She stepped down from this position on July 1, 2014, and remained at Saint Ignatius as a volunteer, visiting residents.

In 2016, Sister Agatha came to the Immaculate Conception Convent in Lodi, New Jersey. Here, once again, she shared her in-depth knowledge of nursing. Each week she met with a group of nursing students from Felician University who marveled at her experience. The Dean of the Nursing Program, as well as various faculty members commented positively on the reflections the students wrote during their time with Sister Agatha.

Sister’s health began to fail, and she was no longer able to meet with the Felician students. From 2019 to 2024 she assumed the ministry of prayer and presence at the Immaculate Conception Convent.

On Monday, December 30, 2025, she began her journey home and at about 11:00 p.m. met her Lord and God. Sister had a request that the following be read at her wake:

FOR THOSE I LOVE

For those who love me…

When I am gone release me, let me go… I have so many things to see and do.

You must not tie yourself to me with tears.

Be happy that we had so many years.

I gave you my love.

You can only guess how much you gave me in happiness.

I thank you for the love you have shown But – now it’s time I traveled alone.

So grieve a while for me, if grieve you must Then let your grief be comforted by trust.

It’s only for a while that we must part.

So bless the memories that lie within your heart.

I won’t be far away, for life goes on. So if you need me, call and I will come.

Though you can’t see me or touch me, I’ll be near

And if you listen with your heart, you’ll hear all of my love around you soft and clear.

And then when you must come this way alone… I’ll greet you with a smile and “welcome home.”

The funeral Mass was held on Friday, January 3, 2025, at 11 a.m. in Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel in Lodi, New Jersey. The body was to be cremated, and the remains buried in the convent cemetery in Lodi.

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Serving where needed since 1874

Founded in Poland in 1855, the Felician Sisters are a congregation of women religious inspired by the spiritual ideals of their foundress, Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska, and Saints Francis of Assisi, Clare of Assisi and Felix of Cantalice. Arriving in North America in 1874 following Blessed Mary Angela’s directive “to serve where needed,” they helped to weave the social service system. Today, the Felician Sisters founded, sponsor or support through the presence of our sisters, more than 40 ministries – all continuing to evolve to meet the needs of the people they serve.

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Felician Sisters of North America