Sister Mary Cyril, OSF (1895 - 1985)
Great granddaughter of Franz Xavier Boeding (1796 - 1878)
Mary Clara Boeding was born on a farm near St. Lucas, Fayette County, Iowa on January 15, 1895 and was baptized by her uncle, the Reverend Francis Xavier Boeding, then pastor of St. Luke's Catholic Church. She was the fifth child and first daughter in a family of eleven children born to Edward Otto Boeding, a Westphalian emigrant, and Elizabeth Lohman Boeding, a native of West Point, Iowa.
For seven years, Clara, as she was called, attended St. Luke's Catholic School, conducted by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
In 1907, the Boeding family moved to their newly purchased farm, four miles north and east of Seneca, Kansas. That same year on June 21, Clara received her First Holy Communion, having been instructed by the Benedictine Fathers of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. She completed the grammar school grades at the parochial school directed by the Benedictine Sisters.
For more than five years, Clara assisted with work in the household or on the farm, especially after the death of her father in 1910. She also helped in the homes of friends and neighbors wherever her services were requested or needed.
While in the early teens, Clara often expressed her desire to enter a convent but a wise mother counseled against a too hasty or too early decision. After her eighteenth birthday, Clara made earnest and repeated efforts by correspondence and travel, searching for the convent of her idealism. After her decision to enter the Community of Saint Francis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, having completed all preparations for departure, her mother's question "Why so far away?" prompted Clara to cancel the application. Continuing the quest, she consulted her uncle, the Reverend Arnold Boeding, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Dubuque, Iowa, who was also Archdiocesan Vicar of Religious as well as retreat master and lecturer. After some deliberation, this priest advised Clara to join the Sisters of Saint Francis in Dubuque, a community that had been exiled from Germany in 1875. In his letter he stated the reason for his choice: "Sie haben einen guten Geist - der Armut". (They have a good spirit - the spirit of poverty).
Clara Boeding began her religious life on September 8, 1914. On the preceding day, she had visited her brother Arnold, a student at Columbia (now Loras) College in Dubuque, Iowa. Their campus tour included a chance meeting with the Reverend Daniel Gorman, president of the college. Arnold introduced his sister and mentioned that she was about to enter a convent. "Congratulations" said the priest, grasping the hand of the astonished student, "anyone aspiring for the priesthood who has a sister in the convent praying for him is certain to succeed".
On June 10, 1915, Clara received the Franciscan habit and veil from the hands of the Most Reverend James J. Keane, Archbishop of Dubuque, and was given the name Sister Mary Cyril. After a two year period for schooling and novitiate training, she was admitted to Vows on June 19, 1917.
Teaching in the intermediate grades at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Templeton, Iowa, the diocese of Sioux City, was Sister Cyril's first mission assignment. The commission included training altar boys, the duties of sacristan together with numerous household and janitorial chores. The three year tenure in Templeton gave the young teacher not only varied and valuable experience but provided a storehouse of memories: incidents and enactments, humorous and otherwise, accruing from association with a pious eccentric German pastor and four elderly confreres of the same caliber, enabled Sister Cyril to entertain community members for the rest of her life.
From the year 1920 to 1925, Sister Cyril taught and served as principal at St. Martin's School in Odebolt, Iowa. With the establishment of Sacred Heart Hospital and Training School for Nurses in Le Mars, Iowa, Sister Cyril's early and abiding inclination for a career in nursing, was revived. She approached the Reverend A.G. Schaefer, pastor of St. Martin's parish, to request a transfer. He flatly refused. After Sister Cyril gave her reason, he relented saying: 'Only because you want to take care of the sick, you can go".
The three year Nurses Training Course climaxed by passing the State Board Examinations, was the prelude to Sister Cyril's fifty two year career as a registered nurse. She spent the first eighteen of these years at Sacred Heart Hospital, serving for various periods of time in the capacity of day nurse, night nurse, procurator, superintendent and local superior.
Because Sister Mary Cyril combined professionalism with compassion she was labeled the Ideal Nurse: because of her insistence that Sisters attend state and national conventions she came to be known as the Progressive Nurse. In the year 1939 Sister Cyril was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Iowa Conference of Catholic Hospitals - a position she held for fourteen years. A fellow sister paid a tribute to her that tells it all: "She would never ask anyone to accept a task, duty or responsibility that she herself was not willing to do or had done by way of example".
During three years spent at Loras College as campus nurse (1940-41) (1948-49), Sister Cyril made many lasting friendships among priests, future priests and students from everywhere.
Sister Mary Cyril was one of the pioneer nurses assigned to Xavier Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa when this institution opened in 1950 and served a total of seven years there. (1949-53) (1956-59)
The pressing need for a local superior and administrator at Sacred Heart Hospital in Le Mars, prompted the reappointment of Sister Cyril in 1953. This three year term gave her the unprecedented record - 24 years at Sacred Heart Hospital.
In 1960, when Sister Cyril had reached the so-called retirement age, she was asked to care for the elderly and sick sisters at Mount St. Francis and the adjoining infirmary, Holy Family Hall. As of 1980, she has spent more than twenty years in this capacity. She has shown by example that her deepest concern and solicitude is for the dying.
It must be noted that Sister Mary Cyril is an avid reader as well as an intrepid traveler. Books and magazines with spiritual or health care titles line her desk, table and shelves. A lifelong attendance at medical workshops, conventions and hospital displays, have taken Sister Cyril to most of the nation's major cities.
When age and ill health reduced nursing duties, Sister Cyril began full scale mission work. Not only did she herself sew clothing for the poor but she enlisted the help of Sisters, even semi-invalids, who sewed, knitted, crocheted and fashioned articles for mission centers. A small staff prepared the parcels to be shipped to the poor and needy.
Among the highlights of Sister Mary Cyril's life are:
- a trip to Europe as companion for a semi-invalid Sister
- the Golden Jubilee of her brother, Father Arnold Boeding
- the Diamond Jubilee of her sister, Sister Mary Helen, OSF in 1978
- the Golden Jubilee of her sister, Sister Mary Edward, RSM
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