In Memoriam


(1932-2018)

Some people touch us through the power of their personalities, their capacity to articulate their convictions with strength. We notice them; we listen to them. That was never Mary’s way. She rather provided a gentle, unthreatening climate whenever she was present. Mary was a listener, not a talker, and wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people listened to one another with her openness and gentle receptivity.

- Sister Carol Johannes, in her homily for Sister Mary Mackert

Mary Mackert was born on August 6, 1932, in Springfield, Ohio, to John and Clara (Wagner) Mackert. John and Clara had three children in all: a baby boy who died at three days old, Mary, and then Peter two and a half years later.

When Sister Mary was in second grade, the family moved to Berea, Ohio, where they lived in a rural setting with two orchards and a vegetable garden and raised some chickens. She attended a two-room schoolhouse operated by the Sisters of the Incarnate Word.

The family moved to Detroit when Sister Mary was ten years old. John was a machinist, and Sister Mary said in her autobiography that while he did not talk about his work she suspected it had something to do with the war effort.

She spent the rest of her primary education at Assumption Grotto in Detroit, taught by the Racine Dominican Sisters, and for high school went to Dominican High School, where she met the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

Read more about Sister Mary (pdf)

make a memorial giftMemorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.


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(1933-2018)

Ever since two members of St. Joseph Academy’s first graduating class in 1899 went on to become Adrian Dominican Sisters (Sisters Cornelia Cassidy and Magdalen Marie Weber), the Academy was for many years a steady source of vocations for the Congregation. One of those “Academy girls” was Mary Catherine Koenig, who became Sister Carol Denise.

Mary Catherine was born on February 3, 1933, in Ottoville, Ohio, to Carl and Elizabeth (Landwehr) Koenig. Due to a heavy snowstorm that day, the doctor and nurse came to the home for the birth rather than having Carl and Elizabeth try to make it to the hospital.

Elizabeth had already had several miscarriages, and when her newest baby was born it looked for a time like a stillbirth. But the nurse noticed a small pulse, and “with a lot of work” on the doctor’s and nurse’s part, “I became a member of the living,” Sister Carol Denise wrote in her autobiography. She was named Mary Catherine because her mother had promised the Blessed Mother that if she had a girl, she would name her after Mary. The “Catherine” part of the name was for Elizabeth’s mother.

The Koenigs owned a farm at the time, but once the Great Depression hit especially hard the family lost the farm and Carl went to work at larger farms that were managing to make it through those years. A large garden and orchard, which Elizabeth tended, kept the family in plenty of vegetables and fruit.

Read more about Sister Carol Denise (pdf)

make a memorial giftMemorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

 

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(1927-2018)

A shared love of being onstage, specifically in plays put on by the Czech Social Club of St. Vitus Parish, Chicago, was the catalyst through which George Luznicky and Lillian Hattan met and fell in love in the early years of the twentieth century.

“My Dad was the straight man in the plays of the Social Club,” wrote Sister Georgina Luznicky in her autobiography. “My Mother was a delightful out-going person who always wanted and got the lead in the plays of the Club.”

George and Lillian, both the children of Czech immigrants, married after George returned from World War I. Injuries had left him crippled, but his cleaning and tailoring business provided well for the family.

The couple had three children: Mary, the oldest; Dorothy, who became Sister Georgina; and Edward. Faith was central in the Luznicky home, and all three siblings had a Catholic education. Mary and Dorothy attended elementary school at St. Nicholas of Tolentine – which was staffed by Adrian Dominicans — and high school at Lourdes, and then Mary, who was four years older than Dorothy, went on to nursing school and served in the U.S. Army. Edward, after elementary school at St. Nicholas of Tolentine, attended Quigley Prep Seminary and eventually became a Servite priest.

Read more about Sister Georgina (pdf)

make a memorial giftMemorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

Leave your comments and remembrances (if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link).

 


(1917-2018)

The feeling I had while preparing this reflection was that of being with a faithful, loving person who knew who she was and what her calling meant – a person of prayer and a solid kind of dependable person you’d want in your life.

— Sister Joanne Peters, Co-Chapter Prioress of Holy Rosary Chapter, in her eulogy at the vigil service for Sister Ann Seraphim Schenk

Out of the thousands of women who have been Adrian Dominican Sisters, only a handful have lived to the age of one hundred or more. Sister Ann Seraphim Schenk was one of those treasured few: when she died on June 24, 2018, she was just four months shy of her 101st birthday and was in her eighty-first year in the Congregation.

Sister Ann Seraphim’s parents, Henry and Linda Hoff Schenk, were both of German descent, with Henry growing up in Quincy, Illinois, and Linda’s family living on a farm in Fayetteville, Illinois, a small town near Belleville. Linda was Henry’s second wife; his first wife died while their son was still an infant. The baby was raised by an aunt and her husband until after Henry remarried, at which point he went to live with Henry and Linda until he was of high school age and went back to the aunt and uncle’s home.

The family moved often in those early years. Henry and Linda went to California on their honeymoon and stayed there for some time; a son, Floyd, was born to them in Santa Cruz and Henry, a carpenter, even built a house there. But at some point soon thereafter, they moved back to Belleville, where four girls were born into the family.

Read more about Sister Ann Seraphim (pdf)

make a memorial giftMemorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

Leave your comments and remembrances (if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link).


Cemetery of the Adrian Dominican Sisters

Our Adrian Dominican cemetery with its circular headstones is a beautiful place of rest for women who gave their lives in service to God — and a peaceful place for contemplation and remembrance. 


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