Sister M. Marlene Breimhorst

Our beloved Sister M. Marlene Breimhorst, 95, died peacefully at 4:50 a.m. on Saturday, May 23, 2015, in Notre Dame Health Care, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Mankato, Minnesota. Although she had been unresponsive for several months, on May 12, the day of the communal anointing of the sick at Good Counsel, she did respond to prayer and to visitors. Throughout her life, she lived by the words of her father, "Gehe in Gottes Namen." ("Go in God's name.") The funeral Mass for Sister Marlene, with Father Bernard Steiner as presider, will be at 10:30 a.m., Friday, May 29, in Good Counsel Chapel, Mankato, followed by cremation. Burial of her cremains will follow at a later date. The vigil service will be at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. We extend our sympathy to her sister-in-law, Dorothy, her nieces and nephews and their families, her friends, former students and colleagues, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, Francis and Helen (Flaschenriem) Breimhorst, her sisters Clara Welsch, Mary Ann Lambrecht, Betty McCarthy and Norma Morgan, and her brothers Martin, Richard and Herman. Sister Marlene, the fourth child of eight, and third daughter, was born on a farm near Jordan, Minnesota, on April 9, 1920. Two days later, she was baptized Magdalen Gertrude at St. John the Baptist Church, Jordan. She later wrote, "Since this name was too hard to pronounce, the little ones soon changed it to Mag. The eight of us together with Mother and Dad spent many pleasant days together on the farm." Sister Marlene attributed her vocation to her early family life: "My parents were both devout Catholics and it was at home that I learned my prayers and received my first religious instructions. Prayers were said in common and the rosary was recited nearly every evening. No wonder the Blessed Mother called me to her own order." In September 1926, Magdalen enrolled in first grade at St. John the Baptist School where she was taught by School Sisters of Notre Dame. She wrote, "I had seen the sisters before, but now that they were my teachers, I decided I should like to be one of them. I thought they were ready-made' and therefore I could never be a real one. However, I could pretend. I tried to dress as a sister and almost forced my brothers and sisters to be my patient students." Magdalen received her First Holy Communion in May 1927 and was confirmed May 17, 1933, when she was in seventh grade. Three days later, her mother died. She wrote, "I felt lost and alone. I had never realized what death meant until that Saturday night when someone woke me and whispered Mom is dead.' It was my dad. He was never the same after that. He became very serious and always seemed very worried about his family." Magdalen wanted to be an aspirant at Good Counsel the following year, but put the thought aside because "we could never afford that and I thought it would break Dad's heart to have one of us leave him just then." However, Magdalen received a scholarship to attend Good Counsel and one of her sisters agreed to look after the home, so she was able to enter the aspiranture in September 1934. She was an aspirant for three years and, during summer vacations, her greatest joy was to be with her dad. When she told him at Christmas 1936 that she wished to enter the candidature the next fall for her senior year of high school, he readily consented in his usual way, "Gehe in Gottes Namen." Her father died in April 1937, however, and she wrote, "I felt now as if it were the last thread, and that I couldn't bear another thing, but God gave his grace together with the cross. My brothers and sisters stayed together on the farm and on August 27, 1937, I went to find a new home in the candidature." Magdalen finished high school in her first year as a candidate, spent her second year at Sacred Heart in St. Paul, and then returned to the candidature for another year of study. She was received into the novitiate in July 1940 and given the name Mary Marlene. Sister Marlene professed first vows in 1941, and that fall taught high school science and mathematics at St. Peter School, Hokah. She also taught at St. Francis de Sales and St. Agnes, St Paul; Notre Dame High School, Cresco, Iowa; and Notre Dame Academy, Colton, Washington. She received her B.S. degree in 1947 and her M.S. degree in 1953, both from Creighton University. In 1952 she began teaching religion, math and science at Good Counsel Academy, where she stayed until 1964. She also taught college courses to postulants and junior sisters both during the school year and summer school. Former students remember her as an excellent teacher. A "Teacher Feature" in Re-Echoes, the alumnae newsletter, contained this remembrance: "Sister Marlene was a fantastic science teacher. She taught us to wonder' at the glory of the natural world. I'll never forget that Things in nature are orderly.'" Other students remember her gentle use of a Shakespearean quotation, "Her voice was ever soft and low, an excellent quality in a woman" (King Lear). In 1964, Sister Marlene was transferred to Don Bosco High School in Gilbertville, Iowa. She did not complete the school year because in March 1965, she was elected to serve as provincial councilor for the Mankato Province. She served in this capacity until February 1971. At that time she wrote to the sisters of the province about her decision to resign three months in advance of the conclusion of her term of office, and to follow through with plans to spend time in the Dallas Province. From 1971 through 1983, she taught at Mount Carmel High School in Houston. There she served as chair of the science department and taught several science classes. Following a six-month sabbatical at St. Mary of the Pines in Chatawa, Mississippi, she returned to the Mankato Province in January 1984 and taught at Totino-Grace High School in Fridley. She retired from teaching in 1989 but lived in Fridley until 1996, staying active through community service. She also had time for her hobbies of reading, crocheting, knitting and tatting. Sister Marlene moved to Good Counsel in 1996. She later wrote about her time on the Hill, "God says Come follow me.' God doesn't say Stop in your tracks because you retire.' I am so grateful for the changes we have made here and plan to make in the future. Being with the sisters is so important. Their loving support has taken me through the ups and downs of life." Failing eyesight and a lack of mobility did not keep her from visiting with sisters, family members, friends and former students, whose company she truly enjoyed. When Sister Marlene was young, her father blessed the children of the family as they left for school with the words, "Gehe in Gottes Namen." We who survive Sister Marlene send her and bless her with these words as she rejoices in Jesus, the Center of her Life. Sister Mary Kay Ash, SSND