Posted November 6, 2021

Sister Mary Cyril Meehan, I.H.M., died Oct. 16 at age 100.

Anna Meehan was born in Shenandoah, Pa., daughter of Edward and Mary (Fitzgerald) Meehan and one of five children raised in Annunciation Parish in Shenandoah. After attending the parish school she attended Wilson Public Elementary School then graduated from Shenandoah Catholic High School in 1939.

She entered the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in July of that year and received her habit and her religious name, Sister Mary Cyril, in January 1940. She pronounced her first vows in 1942 and would go on to earn her degree from Immaculata College in elementary education.

Sister Mary Cyril began her teaching ministry in 1942 at St. William School in Philadelphia where she taught second grade children.

During the course of her teaching ministry over the next 50 years she taught in grade schools including St. William, Good Shepherd, St. Martin of Tours, St. Barnabas, St. Clement and Holy Name in Philadelphia; Blessed Virgin Mary, Darby; St. John of the Cross, Roslyn; St. Dorothy, Drexel Hill; St. Laurence, Upper Darby; Sacred Heart, West Reading; Our Lady of Grace, Somerdale, N.J.; and St. Bartholomew, East Brunswick.

During the 1992-1993 school year, Sister Mary Cyril was a team member serving in the Literacy Program conducted at St. Francis de Sales School, Philadelphia. She then spent a year assisting at St. Aloysius Academy in Bryn Mawr.

Following this assignment she resided at Pacis Hall for two years and ministered at Camilla Hall, the retirement community for the I.H.M. sisters, after which she returned to Shenandoah to offer assistance at Annunciation Convent for two years.

She returned to serve on the Camilla Hall staff in 1997, and remained there in the Apostolate of Prayer as a Camilla Hall resident until her death.

Sister Mary Cyril was predeceased by her parents, her sister Catherine Gregg (John), and her brother James Meehan (Sarah). She is survived by her sister Margaret (Meehan) Zwaan (William), and her nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, as well as her I.H.M. community.

Father Michael Callaghan and Father Joseph Meehan (Sister Cyril’s cousin) concelebrated the funeral Mass Oct. 20.

Memorial donations may be sent to Camilla Hall Nursing Home, IHM Mission Advancement Office, 230 IHM Drive, Malvern, PA 19355.