M Laverne Schmidt

On Saturday, March 27, 2010, our beloved Sister M. Laverne Schmidt fell and suffered a broken hip. Following her hospitalization, she returned to her home on Good Counsel Hill, Mankato, Minnesota, but she never really recovered from the fall. On Tuesday April 20, at 12:30 p.m., God called her home to Heaven at the age of 83.

The Funeral Mass for Sister M. Laverne, with Father Bernard Steiner as presider, will be celebrated on Friday, April 23, 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 April 22. Loving sympathy to her sister, Angeline Bayer, and to her brothers, Marvin A. Schmidt and Peter Schmidt, Jr., to all the members of her family, and to her sisters in Community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, by her sisters, Genevieve Geiger and Victoria Marvin, and by her brother, Lawrence Schmidt.

Sister M. Laverne was born on March 11, 1927, in Dickinson, North Dakota, the oldest of seven children born to Peter Paul and Frances (Froehlich) Schmidt. Two days later, she was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Gaylord, North Dakota, for her Baptism and given the name Caroline Rose. This church in Gaylord was important in the lives of this good Catholic family. Not only was it the place of her parents' marriage, but it was here that Caroline was baptized, received her First Holy Communion, and was confirmed by Bishop Ryan of the Bismarck Diocese.

Caroline grew up on a farm south of South Heart, North Dakota where her parents farmed from 1926 until 1957 when they retired and moved into Dickinson, where her father enjoyed woodworking and her mother homemaking. Caroline attended the public school in Stark County, Fischer District School No. 4, where she graduated from 8th grade in 1942. During her years at home, she writes that she liked to make a nice chicken meal for her whole family when her mother and dad went to town, to surprise them when they came home.

Concerning her vocation, she wrote, "When I heard that my cousin, Eva Hecker (our Sister Mary Immaculate) was preparing to enter the Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, I decided within a week's time to accompany her. I had always wanted to be a sister but didn't want to go alone. I thank God every day since Eva brought me along with her." They entered the Candidature in Mankato on August 28, 1945. As second year candidate, she spent the year here in the Motherhouse, working in the kitchen and going about her daily tasks.

On July 16, 1947, Caroline was received into the novitiate and given the name Sister Mary Laverne. Following First Profession on July 17, 1948, she remained in the Motherhouse as one of the helpers in the kitchen. Her first mission was Lonsdale, Minnesota, "but in three weeks I was called to Cologne, Minnesota, where I was stationed for three and a half years." She writes: "One of my greatest joys here was the baking of altar breads."

In the beginning of March of that same year, she was missioned to Mantador, North Dakota. Of this experience she notes that "Here I was very much edified at the sisters who wore the secular garb. It was a great sacrifice for them, but they did it willingly in obedience." After only three months in Mantador, she was called back to Mankato to help in food service in the Motherhouse.

A home service sister all her convent life, she served in convents in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington. In Minnesota she was missioned to St. Mark's, Shakopee; SS. Cyril and Methodius, Minneapolis; SS. Peter & Paul, Mankato; and St. Agnes, St. Paul. She served in North Dakota in New Hradec, New England, and St. Wenceslaus in Dickinson. She also spent a year in Colton, Washington. At intermittent times she was called back to the Motherhouse to give community service. In 1977, she returned for good to Good Counsel where she served for the next 20 years, retiring in 1997.

On mission, she often had a little garden and she said she liked cooking and baking, laundry and ironing, canning, doing the altar linens, and crocheting, a skill she used in making articles for the craft fair, the gift shop, and for individuals. She also enjoyed baking in the Home Ec Room for the sisters, praying for people, going to Mass, saying the rosary and praying the Office. Her family was dear to her and she liked going on home visits.

Sister M. Laverne had lovely handwriting and she seemed to have a very special ministry of writing letters to sisters who lived alone or who were on special assignments.

Of her vocation, Sister M. Laverne wrote: "I have enjoyed living my religious life and am more than grateful for all the care and concern I have been given during my years as a School Sister of Notre Dame. I appreciate all that I have been blessed with."

Now, after 62 years as a School Sister of Notre Dame, serving her Sisters in community, may dear Sister M. Laverne be with the God she loved in life.


Sister Mary Joyce Pietsch