Remembering Sister Laura Filipas, OSF

On April 24, 2023, after a short time in hospice care, Sister Laura Filipas died quickly, peacefully, and unexpectedly. After 88 years of loving her family and then her religious community, she passes on that legacy of love to all of us. Some years ago, in creating a document that might be called a spiritual will, Sister Laura wrote, “I am a teacher to the marrow of my bones because I love to learn and share, but intellect and knowledge without love and understanding is nothing. Any success I may have achieved, any good I may have done for others, was inspired by my familial and Franciscan ancestors. This is the love I leave, to live on in you who read these words.”

On May 28, 1934, Laura Ann Filipas was born in Chicago to Croatian parents, Pearl (Bogdanic) and John J. Filipas, both of whom had been born in Austria. She was their youngest child and was welcomed into a family of three brothers and one sister. They were raised in Sacred Heart-Englewood parish in Chicago. At her 25th Jubilee, Sister Laura described her entry into the Joliet Congregation as a kind of home and Community affair. She recalled with amusement driving herself, her mother, and Sisters Francella and Celestine to Joliet the day she entered. Her companions then had to wait for a return trip to Chicago until her brother, after work, could travel to Joliet by bus to chauffeur them home.

Read More About Sister Laura’s Life

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Remembering Sister Donna Marie Baier, OSF

Sister Donna Marie Baier was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 26, 1936, to Wilhelmina (Jaeger) and George Baier. One of five children, Sister Donna Marie (Dorothy Elizabeth) had one brother, Brother Leonard George, FSC, and three sisters, Sister M. George Baier, OSF, Bernice (Harry) Bloom, Beatrice (Kenneth) Leyendecker, all of whom have preceded her in death. She entered our Joliet Franciscan congregation in 1954 from Sacred Heart Englewood Parish in Chicago.

After majoring in science at the College of St. Francis, Donna Marie became an elementary school teacher, whose skills in the classroom were immediately recognized and affirmed by principals in every school where she taught. After 16 years, Sr. Donna Marie became the long-time principal of St. Joseph School in Manhattan, Illinois, a position she held for 21 years. As is often the case in small schools, she did double duty as a teacher every one of those years.

Her ministry there alongside her great friend, Sr. Bernadine Hasse, brought her much joy and many happy memories of their time together. They enjoyed their home life and travels as well as their hard work together on behalf of the parish and town. As her friend, Bernie’s needs grew greater and greater during her last few years of life, Donna Marie was ever at her side – reading to her, praying with her, tending to her physical as well as emotional needs. She accompanied her to the very last moment with patience and friendship.

Read More About Sister Donna Marie’s Life

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Remembering Sister Lucille Adelmann, OSF

On the evening of March 26, 2023, in the company of loved ones, our sister, Lucille Adelmann, was led peacefully from this life into paradise. As a hope-filled healer, a gifted comforter and a courageous advocate over the course of her ninety-six years, we can imagine that among the angels who came to carry Lucy home to God, the Archangel Raphael, most certainly took the lead.

In the summer of 1926, Agnes (Brankey) and Harry Adelmann welcomed into the world of Lockport, Illinois, a precious infant daughter whom they named Lucille Agnes. As a family, the Adelmanns belonged to St. John the Baptist Parish in Joliet, Illinois, where they were welcomed by the
Franciscan Friars. It was at St. John’s that Lucy and her sister, Evelyn Rose, received the sacraments of Christian Initiation as well as a Catholic elementary school education provided by the Sisters of Saint Francis of Mary Immaculate. During her adolescent years, Lucy continued to come under the influence and inspiration of many Joliet Franciscan sisters who were her teachers and mentors at St. Francis Academy and later at the College of Saint Francis. As a student, Lucy’s abilities in Mathematics and Science were noteworthy as was her natural talent for music that found expression in her beloved instrument, the accordion. However, there was much more to the young Lucy Adelmann than these particular talents and gifts. Generous, kind, intuitive, undaunted, compassionate and attentive to God’s holy manner working in her life, Lucy’s Franciscan heart was enkindled with love for the God who called her by name.

Read More About Sister Lucille’s Life

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Remembering Sister Thadine Kaminski, OSF

Early in the morning of February 10, 2023, the heartfelt prayer of our Sister Thadine Kaminski was answered. The long-awaited time had come to complete her journey home to God,
and she was prepared. Trusting confidently in God’s gracious love and divine mercy, she believed that the sufferings of the past and present moment were nothing compared to the coming glory that soon would be revealed to her (Romans 8:18). Running with patience the race that was set before her, she held fast to an unwavering faith in the Lord’s promise of eternal life and looked forward with a certain hope to being reunited with all of the loved ones who made up the cloud of witnesses that had surrounded her throughout her life (Heb 12:1-2).

Born in Chicago, Illinois, to her loving parents, Stella (Kopczyk) and James Kaminski, Mary Ann was blessed with four brothers and three sisters. Growing up in a large family, she learned much about love, respect and caring for others. Influenced by the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate who staffed St. Francis Xavier parish school, young Mary Ann was attracted to the spirit and life she witnessed in the community of the Sisters. Encouraged to discern her vocational calling, at the age of thirteen she became an aspirant with the Joliet Franciscans and attended St. Francis Academy in Joliet, Illinois.

Read More About Sister Thadine’s Life

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Remembering Sister Janet Rieden, OSF

On the afternoon of February 8, 2023, our sister, Janet Rieden, was surrounded with the loving presence of family, Sisters and dear friends, as the final hours of her Christian journey were drawing near. Conformed throughout her life to the Word of God, it was most fitting that the Gospel reading for the day (Matthew: 25:6 -7) heralded the parable of the wise virgin who kept her lamp trimmed and burning, never growing weary until her work was done.

In 1934, as the New Year dawned in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Catherine (Hentges) and Peter J. Rieden eagerly awaited the anticipated birth of their first child. Among the great joys of the holiday season was the arrival of their infant daughter, Janet Marie, on January 2, the ninth day of Christmas!

Together with her beloved brother, Gordon, Janet was raised in the wonder and beauty of life on the southern shore of Lake Winnebago. From an early age, she embraced the love of learning and the value that her family placed on education. Influenced by the example of the Sisters of St. Agnes, her teachers at St. Patrick’s Parish school and later, at St. Mary’s Springs High School, one of the first co-educational Catholic high schools in Wisconsin, Janet was drawn to the vocation of teaching. In the Fall of 1952, she made her way to Joliet, Illinois, to attend the College of St. Francis where she met the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate. It was there that she was drawn to the charism of the congregation through the spirit and life of the sisters who were her mentors and her classmates.

Read More About Sister Janet’s Life

If you would like to make a donation in honor of Sister Carlene or another Joliet Franciscan Sister, please click here:  Remembering our Deceased Sisters.

Remembering Sister Bernard Marie Campbell, OSF

“I’m going to have to do some getting used to it. In the first place I’m going back to my hometown. But I know Mansfield more than I do Joliet.” These were Sister Bernard Marie Campbell’s words expressed eight years ago to a reporter for the Mansfield News Journal who interviewed her and Sister Paula Bingert on their departure from Mansfield after 144 years of our Sisters’ having served there.

Yes, that change in 2015 did require some adjustment. But Bernard found comfort in the work that she did weekly for the Congregation at the Joliet Franciscan Center when she called donors to thank them for their contributions. Expressing that gratitude reminded her of the 19 years she had spent at Saint Peter’s High School Development office thanking the alumni and benefactors for their support. Being at Our Lady of Angels, next door to Joliet Catholic Academy, where her nephew was the baseball coach, gave Bernard a chance to stay in touch with the high school athletic scene which had meant so much to her. Living at Our Lady of Angels where her brother Bob became a resident before he died there also brought family within reach in a new way. She had talked to her brother Tom in Florida twice a day for years following his heart transplant, but this was another special connection with “the boys.” Her nieces and nephews were close at hand, also, including the children of her sisters Patricia and Dorothy, both of whom predeceased her.

Read More About Sister Bernard Marie’s Life

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Remembering Sister Suzanne Lesniewski, OSF

Sister Suzanne Lesniewski was born in Chicago on February 15, 1937, the daughter of Pearl (Januchowski) and Harry Lesniewski. After attending SS. Peter and Paul Grade School in Chicago, Suzanne went to high school at St. Francis Academy in Joliet. She earned a BA in history from the College of St. Francis and an MA in religious studies from Mundelein College.

In her early years as a vowed Joliet Franciscan, Suzanne was known by the religious name of Sister M. Hope. She began her career as a grade school teacher in several cities in Illinois: Chicago, Des Plaines, Lansing, Freeport and Joliet.

When Suzanne felt called to move from classroom teaching to directing catechetical programs, she was told by Sister Francine Zeller that she was not professionally prepared. She wasted no time enrolling in and completing a Masters program in religious education at Mundelein College. Those studies stood her in good stead as she went on to direct programs in numerous parishes for the next four decades until her retirement. She later served the Congregation as a Local Coordinator and in the Mission Advancement office.

Read More About Sister Suzanne’s Life

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Remembering Sister Verene Girmscheid, OSF

In the midst of a dark and quiet winter’s night, our beloved Sister Verene Alvina Girmscheid, followed the heavenly star that would lead her home to God. Born on January 6, 1935, she became the very best gift that her parents Theresa (Marx) and Robert Girmscheid could offer to the Christ Child. In the company of kings and camels, a true Franciscan witness to the joyful mystery of the Incarnation, Verene’s earthly life began on the feast of the Epiphany, and eighty-eight years later, came to completion within its octave on January 11, 2023.

The second oldest of seven children, Verene was a loving daughter and a devoted sibling to her three brothers and three sisters. With the family’s move from rural Wisconsin to the southside of Chicago, Verene had the opportunity to receive a Catholic education where the awakening of a religious vocation occurred at an early age. During the Summer of 1948, as a kind, serious, pious, hard-working and intelligent thirteen-year old, character traits that would follow her through life, Verene successfully persuaded her parents that entering the aspirancy of the Joliet Franciscans was a very good idea. She was convinced of the call from which she never wavered over the course of the next seventy-five years.

Read More About Sister Verene’s Life

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Remembering Sister Vivian Whitehead, OSF

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our heart, and we are never, ever the same.” Flavia Weedn

 Leaving footprints in our world epitomizes the life of Sister Vivian Whitehead who began her 95-year journey on August 14, 1927, on the southeast side of Chicago. The firstborn, she was welcomed into the world by her parents Margaret (Kersten) and Fred Whitehead.  Siblings followed; Annette Leah Nordmark (deceased) and Larry (Betty) Whitehead.  As years went on, numerous nieces and nephews arrived, becoming part of the joy of her life.

St. Dorothy Grade School and Loretto Academy Woodlawn in Chicago, set the foundation for her formal future education.  She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, graduating Cum Laude, from the College of St. Francis (now University of St. Francis) where she met the Joliet Franciscans in the classroom.  Inspired by the Sisters and the Franciscan charism, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate on September 2, 1947, her junior year at the College of St. Francis. Upon entering the novitiate August 12, 1950, she was given the name Sister Michelyn. Her formal education concluded at St. Bonaventure University in New York, where she received a Ph.D. in biology.  Always the learner, she continued studying in areas such as theology, criminology, canon law, governance and counseling, social justice, and a variety of other areas that would prepare her, feed her ministry, light a fire in her soul, and eventually lead her down the path to Will County Adult Detention Facility and Appalachia.

Read More About Sister Vivian’s Life

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Remembering Sister Carlene Howell, OSF

Sister Mary Carlene Howell was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 12, 1934, to Frances (Fisher) and Gilbert Howell. She was Baptized, Gwendolyn and given the name Mary Carlene upon her entrance to the novitiate of the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate in Joliet, Illinois. Carlene has one brother, Durk and a sister, June. As children, Carlene was given the nickname “Gwenie” by her brother.

Carlene loved learning as much as she did teaching. After receiving her bachelor’s degree at the College of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, she earned a Master’s degree in English at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and a Master’s degree in Religious Studies at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. She continued post-graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, University of Detroit, University of Southern California, DePaul University and St. Louis University.

She served as Chair of the English Department at the University of St. Francis for several of her 13 years as an Assistant Professor of English. She once said, “The literature courses I taught provided a means for students to study human nature in a context that was fictional but at the same time very real! I loved seeing students blossom into thoughtful and questioning individuals.”

Read More About Sister Carelene’s Life

If you would like to make a donation in honor of Sister Carlene or another Joliet Franciscan Sister, please click here:  Remembering our Deceased Sisters.