Sister Marian Sweeney, PBVM, formerly Sister Mary St. Jude, 94, died on Saturday, December 13, 2025, at the Sisters of the Presentation (Mount Loretto), 2360 Carter Road, Dubuque, Iowa.

On Thursday, December 18, friends may call from 9:30 – 11 a.m. at Sacred Heart Chapel, Sisters of the Presentation, where there will be a wake service at 9:30 a.m. and funeral service at 11 a.m. Burial will follow in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Key West.

Sister Marian, daughter of Joseph and Irene (O’Brien), was born Marian Margaret Sweeney on October 28, 1931, in Bernard, Iowa.  She entered the Sisters of the Presentation from Bernard, Iowa, on September 8, 1949, and professed her perpetual vows on June 19, 1955.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Clarke College (now Clarke University) in Dubuque, Iowa, and a Master of Library Science from Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois.

Sister Marian taught in various schools in Mason City, Lawler, Sheldon, Algona, Ryan, Dougherty and Waukon, all in Iowa; Winner, South Dakota, and St. Paul, Minnesota, teaching every grade with the exception of grade eight. She served as the librarian in St. Paul, Minnesota, at Newman High School in Mason City, at Bishop Garrigan High School in Algona and at Wahlert Catholic High School in Dubuque. She retired to Mount Loretto in 1999 and continued to minister in the community archives and library, researching and sharing the early history of the Sisters of the Presentation. She celebrated her 75^th Jubilee in 2024. To feed her passion for reading, she made many trips across the famous “Music Man” bridge in Mason City to the public library. “Marian, the librarian” became one of her many claims to fame. In addition to reading, Sister Marian enjoyed art history, traveling, sewing, a good game of cards, crossword and jigsaw puzzles and crafts.  She valued prayer and community service.

Surviving are her sister, Lucille Roth, brother Ray (Chris) Sweeney, nieces, nephews, and the Sisters of the Presentation with whom she shared her life for 76 years.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Joseph Jude and her sister-in-law Lois Sweeney.

The Leonard Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Memorials may be made to the Sisters of the Presentation, 2360 Carter Road, Dubuque, IA 52001 or online at: www.dbqpbvms.org.