M Eleanore Zeren

Mankato Mortuary
1001 N. Riverfront Drive
Mankato, MN 56001
507-388-2202

Our beloved Sister M. Eleanore Zeren, 99, died peacefully at 5:50 p.m., Saturday, March 10, 2012, in Notre Dame Health Care Center, Good Counsel Campus, Mankato, Minnesota. An eighty-year Jubilarian who would have celebrated her 100th birthday later this year, she was alert and aware of what was happening until a few days before her death.

The funeral Mass for Sister Eleanore, with Fr. Eugene Stenzel as presider, will be on Wednesday, March 14, at 10:30 a.m. in Good Counsel Chapel, followed by burial in our cemetery. The vigil service will be at 7:00 p.m. on March 13. Loving sympathy to her sister, Lorraine Utter and her brother, Leo, her nieces and nephews and their families, her former colleagues, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Sister Eleanore was preceded in death by her parents, Philip and Mary (Pawlicheck) Zeren, and her brothers Art, Lloyd and Sylvester.

Sister Eleanore was born October 10, 1912, on the family farm near New England, North Dakota. She received the name Elizabeth Myrtle at her baptism on October 27 in St. Mary's Church, New England. In her autobiography she wrote, "It was a great day of joy for my dear parents as I was the first girl in the family and my two brothers were happy to have a little sister." A younger sister and two brothers would eventually join the family.

Because there was no parochial school in the area, Elizabeth, at the age of six, began first grade in a little country school about one-quarter mile from the family farm. She commented, "The land being level, I could see my daddy at work while we were playing at recess." In her fourth year of school, she received her First Holy Communion, a very joyous event for her.

Sister Eleanore described another very happy event this way: "At Christmas time during my fifth year in school, my parents had a great surprise for me, for I was no longer to attend the country school, but they had made arrangements to send me to the boarding school at St. Pius, conducted by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. . . . The impression made on my mind during this, my first acquaintance with sisters, was very deep, and already thoughts were entering my mind of some day becoming one of their happy number." The following fall brought more educational " and vocational " excitement. The School Sisters of Notre Dame opened St. Mary's School in New England, and Elizabeth started sixth grade there. She continued her vocation story, "I spent three years at St. Mary's, two as a boarder. Through the influence of my good teachers and the candidates, the thought of becoming a religious grew. . . . It was during the month of May [of my eighth grade year