Our dear Sr. M. Angelica died peacefully on Sunday, August 7, 1988, at our monastery in Clyde.

Helen Josephine Diffendal was born on September 29, 1908, at Robbins Station, PA, the second oldest in a family of three girls and two boys, and grew up in McKeesport where the family moved when she was one year old. When Helen was nine, one of the Sisters of Mercy at St. Peter's school gave her a copy of "Tabernacle and Purgatory" to take home. This was how they learned about the Benedictine Sisters at Clyde. A few years later, in September 1924, both Helen and her older sister, Ruth, enrolled in St. Joseph's Academy at Clyde. Helen's mother wanted her to take art lessons. She received these from Sr. M. Cyrilla, her teacher. After two years at the Academy,  Helen entered the community. Her sister, Ruth (Sr. M. Benigna) had entered the previous year. On August 26, 1928, Helen made her first profession of vows as Sister M. Angelica, with perpetual vows on September 8, 1933.

Most of her monastic life was spent in the Art Dept, at Clyde working with Sr. M. Cyrilla, although her generous spirit often found her helping in the infirmary kitchen and elsewhere. She said of those earlier years: "We helped in the yard, in the canning room and the chicken house, washed mild dishes in the morning, and had a lot of cleaning to do, so we really didn't have a lot of time for art." However, as they continued to work together for more than forty years, their artistic accomplishments were many and beautiful, as can readily be seen in the Adoration Chapel at Clyde, in St. Benedict's oratory, and in the monastery. The Relic chapel is adorned with their paintings of scenes from the life of St. Benedict. They also completed several sets of the Way of the Cross which were reproductions of originals designed by Max Schmalzl, C.S.S.R. They made designs for four of the large monstrances used in our monastery chapels, and designs for the printery and the vestment sewing room. The large painting in the Clyde refectory is an original, designed by Sister M. Angelica and Sr. M. Cyrilla.

Sister also possessed the art of authentic monastic living in community, deeply outlined by humility, obedience, generosity and faithfulness. Her gentle presence and radiant smile were a gift in our midst. Sister once said: "When painting, I don't start anything I know I can't do in the amount of time I have to work." Her skill in timing remained with her until the end. In mid-afternoon on August 7, Sr. M. Angelica went into St. Benedict's oratory to pray. It was there in this chapel so richly adorned with her own works of art, that she was to bring to completion the beautiful image of "The Original: Christ" that she had reproduced in her own life. She was seen in prayer at 2:55 PM, but at 3:15 another Sister came into the Chapel to find that Sr. M. Angelica had entered quietly into eternal life with our God of beauty.