Mother Mary DeSales Tocka

In 1926, when Mother Mary DeSales Tocka was appointed seventh provincial superior of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Province, she inherited the tabled plans for a new provincial complex.

By 1932, Mother DeSales had purchased 320 acres of property, but during the Great Depression, construction costs were estimated at nearly one million dollars. Not until 1935 were funds adequate for a groundbreaking on the proposed site, the former Smith's Farm. 

Despite the cost, Mother DeSales moved ahead as a building was imperative to house the orphaned girls, a secondary school for aspirants, the novitiate, and the sisters. On November 12, 1936, Villa St. Felix was ready for occupancy.

Apostolic expansion continued under Mother DeSales and in 1935, Felicians accepted management of the domestic department of SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan as a gift in memory of Father Joseph Dabrowski, the school’s founder.

In 1936, Mother DeSales offered to staff St. Peter Claver Mission School without remuneration. It was the first parochial elementary school for African American children in Detroit. And she accepted the patronage of St. Joseph School in Detroit, which brought the sisters into this Polish-Italian neighborhood.

Mother DeSales organized Presentation Junior College in the new provincial house in 1937 to provide teaching sisters with both a two-year general education and teacher preparation courses.

Her open mind and understanding heart endeared Mother DeSales to the sisters while her administrative qualities and organizational skills bolstered the province for future growth.