of the Souls in Purgatory
(Sophie Kisielewicz)
May 6, 1915 – November 15, 2005
Saint Joseph Province
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
“My Lord, one thing alone is important: to live with You in love so that you are the life of my soul.” (Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd. Notes, 1895)
Born on May 6, 1915, in Detroit Michigan, Sophie was one of three children of Nicholas and Angeline (Dral) Kisielewicz. She was baptized at Saint Stanislaus Church in Detroit, Michigan on May 13, 1915. (Her brother, John Kisielewicz died in 1974 and her sister, Frances Mardis, died in 1988.) Sophie attended John D. Pierce Grammar School (Detroit) and Mount Nazareth Academy for high school (Pittsburgh). Sister received a Bachelor’s degree in education from Duquesne University in 1944. Sophie entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth from Transfiguration Parish in Detroit on June 7, 1930. On July 30, 1931, she entered the novitiate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receiving the name “Mary Joanetta.” Later she changed her religious name to “Mary Jeannette.” She made her first profession of vows on August 16, 1933, and her final profession on August 15, 1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the time of her final profession she added the mystery “of the Souls in Purgatory” to her religious name.
Sister Jearinette was a deeply compassionate woman, attentive to suffering in others and ready to listen and assist with care and concern. Perhaps this gift was honed from her own sadness in her life; her father left the family after she entered religious life. From that time, she never saw him again.
Sister Jeannette was an elementary school teacher from 1933 to 1963. She taught in Cleveland, Ohio at Our Lady of Czestochowa and Saint Stanislaus Schools; in the Pittsburgh Diocese in Immaculate Heart of Mary, Holy Family Institute, and Saint Malachy; at Saint Stanislaus School in Erie, Pennsylvania; and at Saint Martha’s School in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1965, the only woman in her class, she completed coursework in respiratory therapy at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. For the next 12 years, she used that skill at Ohio Valley General Hospital. From 1977 to 1979, she was school secretary at Resurrection Catholic in Montgomery, Alabama and from 1979 to 1996 served in a variety of other ministries.
In her later years, Sister Jeannette was known for her gracious hospitality shown to guests at the motherhouse in Pittsburgh as receptionist and guest coordinator for Father John Hugo’s “Encounter with Silence” retreats. She retired to Holy Family Manor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1996 and spent her final years from 2001 at Regina Health Center in Ohio. After difficulties in her health condition throughout the years, Sister Jeannette quietly went to the Lord on November 15, 2005, at Regina Health Center, Richfield, Ohio.
With her remains returned to Pittsburgh, a wake service was held in the Holy Family Manor Chapel in Pittsburgh on November 17, 2005. During the prayer service, Sister Celeste Hupert, who had lived with Sister Jeannette for several years, commented that Sister Jeannette’s favorite scripture passage had to do with being “the apple of God’s eye.” In reflection on that passage, Reverend David Moczulski OFM, celebrant and homilist for her funeral liturgy on November 18, 2005, noted that the “apple” is that part of the eye that holds the reflection of the other. Perhaps in looking back at that simple yet often repeated phrase, we recognize Sister Jeannette’s own sense of longing to be reflected and to reflect the Divine Other throughout her life. With that reminder, the gathering of family, friends and her Sisters in community, Sister M. Jeannette Kisielewicz, age 90, was laid to rest in Saint Joseph Cemetery on the provincialate grounds in the 76th year of her religious life.
Eternal rest grant to her, 0 Lord!
Digitized by S. Brendan O'Brien, CSFN
Instructor
School of Arts & Sciences
History Department
Holy Family University
9801 Frankford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19114
215-637-7700 x3279
srbrendan@holyfamily.edu
http://web3.holyfamily.edu/srbrendan
Last updated: February 2006