Sister M. Paulette Collings was honored with the Peacemaker Award at the recent Franciscan Federation Meeting in St. Louis, MO. Honorees selected for this recognition exhibit one or more of these qualities:

* someone who creates a sense of hospitality and inclusivity,

* one who works toward widening circles of compassion to include those persons who are often overlooked or excluded,

* and someone who lives out of a deliberate contemplative awareness that embraces all creation.

Sister Paulette Professed First Vows with our Community on October 4, 1948. A graduate of St. John's Hospital School of Nursing, she served in surgery as a staff nurse, supervisor, and clinical instructor. After 16 years in hospital administration, she served as Provincial Superior of the American Province and as a General Councilor of our International Leadership Team in Muenster, Germany. Now in her 66th year in our Community, she continues to serve as the Assistant to the Community Life Leader here at St. Francis Convent.

We congratulate you, Sister Paulette.

Our Sister Lenore Baranczyk died on­­­­­ Monday, July 14, 2014, at 3:45 p.m. at St. John’s Hospital (Springfield, IL).

Sister Lenore, the former Anna Baranczyk, was born in Hofa Park, WI, on August 25, 1919, the daughter of John and Mary (Bluma) Baranczyk. She entered our Congregation on February 2, 1939, and professed her religious vows on October 4, 1941.

Sister Lenore was a graduate of our St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing and earned a Bachelor’s Degree from LeClerc College (Belleville, IL) and a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO). She served our Community as a nurse and administrator in our hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin (St. Francis Hospital, Washington, MO from 1956-1961 and St. Nicholas Hospital and Anna Reiss Home for the Aged, Sheboygan, WI from 1963-1969). She also served in our mission in Chicago, IL and Page, AZ. She returned to St. Francis Convent in 2004.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by ten brothers: Frank, Edward, Louis, James, Chester, Michael, Adolph, Ted, Harry, and Roman Baranczyk, and two sisters:  Victoria Tyczkowski and Clara Wozniak.

She is survived by one sister, Mary Marunowski, several nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and cousins, as well as her Franciscan Sisters with whom she shared her life for over 75 years.

Visitation will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, July 17, here at St. Francis Convent with a Wake Service at 6 p.m. The Eucharistic Celebration and Rite of Christian Burial will be celebrated by Father Andre Schludecker, OFM, on Friday, July 18, at 10:30 a.m. here in St. Clare of Assisi Adoration Chapel. Burial will be in our Crucifixion Hill Cemetery.

Staab Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

To read Sister Lenore's feature story from 2006, please click here.