DUMONT — On Sunday, April 29, St. Mary’s Church in Dumont celebrated the blessing of a newly commissioned painting of Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, a Bayonne native who is a candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. The Rev. Dominic Ciriaco, pastor of St. Mary’s, blessed the painting during the noon Mass before a congregation that included Juan Pablo Esteban, the artist who painted Demjanovich’s likeness. The portrait will hang in the vestibule area of St. Mary’s Church.

If canonized, Demjanovich will likely become the first New Jersey saint. A graduate of Bayonne High School in 1917 and the College of Saint Elizabeth in 1923, Demjanovich went on to teach at the Academy of Saint Aloysius in Jersey City and eventually joined the Sisters of Charity. She died May 8, 1927, at only 26 years old. The official investigation for her canonization process began in 1946. Sister Marian Jose Smith, who is in charge of the cause for Demjanovich’s canonization, joined several other Sisters of Charity at St. Mary’s Church for the blessing of the painting.

For those seeking more information, a series of Demjanovich’s writings have been anthologized into Greater Perfection, a paperback available for $15 by writing to P.O. Box 476, Convent Station, N.J. 07961-0476. Pamphlets on the sister’s life are also available at St. Mary’s parish office, 280 Washington Ave., Dumont, or by calling 201-384-0557.