Sister Mary Lelia: After retiring as educator, she still enjoys participating with IWA students

Sister Mary Lelia Aguilar, IWBS will celebrate 60 years in consecrated life on July 31. She and several other novices made their first profession of vows July 31, 1954, and she professed perpetual vows on Aug. 17, 1958.

Baptized Dorina Aguilar, Sister Mary Lelia was born in Port Isabel, Texas, to Hilario and Herlinda Pena Aguilar. As a youngster she attended Washington Park and Immaculate Conception elementary schools. She received her high school education from Villa Maria High School, the first high school of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in Brownsville.

On Sept. 2, 1952, the same year that she graduated from Villa Maria, the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in Corpus Christi accepted her as a candidate. She began her novitiate June 3, 1953.

Sister Mary Lelia received her bachelor’s degree with a Spanish major from St. Edward’s University in Austin. She earned a master’s degree from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, with a specialization in administration and supervision.

Sister Mary Lelia’s years of ministry include teaching and school administration in parochial and private schools in the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the dioceses of Corpus Christi and Brownsville, including assignments at Sacred Heart, Corpus Christi Cathedral, Incarnate Word Junior High, Christ the King and St. Pius X Schools in Corpus Christi, Our Lady of Victory School in Beeville and St. Luke School in San Antonio.

She served as principal in several Catholic schools where her congregation ministered, including Incarnate Word Elementary School in Corpus Christi, Blessed Sacrament School in Laredo, Our Lady of Guadalupe School, Incarnate Word Academy and Villa Maria High School in Brownsville.

For several years, Sister Mary Lelia served as director of the annual “A Little Bit of Mexico” program and of the Villa Maria Alumni Association in Brownsville. She also served many years as director of Villa Maria Language Institute in Brownsville. The Institute will honor her on Aug. 1, at the anniversary celebration of the language summer program, which she initiated.