Sister Marion Puszcz, MM
Born: March 25, 1925
Entered: September 2, 1954
Died: September 27, 2026
On the morning of September 27, 2026, Sister Marion Puszcz, MM died at our Maryknoll Center, Maryknoll, New York. A verse from Proverbs 31:10 came quickly to mind: “Who shall find a valiant woman? Who can find a woman of strength?” We found her and Marion was that woman. She was 101 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 72 years.
Marion Agatha Puszcz was born on March 25, 1925, in Yonkers, New York to Walter and Thecla Roth Puszcz. Her two brothers have predeceased her. She attended the parish grade school, St. Casimir, and graduated from Blessed Sacrament Academy in 1942. Marion’s traditional Polish family background instilled in her a strong faith and a value system she never doubted.
After graduating from Fordham University with a BSc in 1945, Marion went on to New York Medical College, receiving her MD in 1949. From 1949 through 1954, Marion completed residencies in obstetrics and gynecology at Albany Medical Center. In this period, Marion felt another call. In 1954, she wrote: “I want to treat souls as well as bodies.” She entered the Maryknoll Sisters on September 2, 1954, making her first vows on March 7, 1957, at Maryknoll, New York, and her final vows on the same date in 1963 in Tanzania, East Africa.
In 1957, Marion began her twenty-year commitment to East Africa, beginning in Tanzania where she supervised the building of 40-bed hospital in the Musoma area, then became Director of the newly established Kowak Catholic Hospital where she trained staff in all aspects of hospital-based health care. She received a government appointment as consultant OB-GYN at two hospitals in Dar es Salaam, supervising and teaching students and staff. Moving to Kenya, Marion was chief gynecologist at three large hospitals where she trained and supervised care and led outreach teams to village health centers.
Returning from Africa in 1977, Marion did some updating in theology and scripture at the Maryknoll Seminary and completed a course in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at the College on New Rochelle. She then spent some time in the cloister discerning a transfer there, but this was not to be. From 1980 to 1987, Marion worked through New York Hospital offering various mental and physical health programs for teens at risk in the city. She completed a renewal program, CREDO, at Gonzaga University in 1988 before accepting an assignment to Bangladesh in 1989. Her ministry there involved being medical director in St. Paul’s Hospital in Shelabunia and as chief of OB-GYN service at Fatima Hospital until 1995. Marion then taught English language and literacy at two factories and a high school in Dhaka.
Marion’s next assignment was to Nicaragua in 1997 where she again taught English language and became deeply involved in seeking funding to build homes for village people who had lost everything in recurrent flooding in Leon. She was there until 2001 when “retirement” at Monrovia beckoned.
For Marion, retirement of course meant taking on a multitude of new ministries. She was a chaplain at City of Hope for many years, did meals on wheels, wrote letters to incarcerated people, and was a eucharistic minister in the parish. One ministry was especially meaningful for Marion, her connection as chaplain and friend to the men and women of the Foothill Police Department. She was a well-known figure in Monrovia.
Marion was a complex woman who was driven to serve; she was as well a relentless seeker of holiness as her extensive writings reveal. Community life was a serious challenge, but she was fiercely loyal to her sisters and friends all over the world.
In 2015, Marion saw the need to move from Monrovia to the Center to the Chi Rho community, and then to Eden in 2025 where she died in peace. We welcome Father John Lang, M.M., for the liturgy celebrating the life of Sr. Marion Puszcz.