Sr. Francesca

Sr. Francesca with her mother, Frances, Circa 1945

Sister Francesca Paleczny of Kitchener, Ontario, was one of four sisters profiled in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, June 24, 2000. Entitled, "A lifetime of dedication," the article tells the stories of the four School Sisters of Notre Dame who are living at St. Anne's Convent, which, according to the report, had been scheduled to close earlier this year.

Sr. Francesca has been a resident at St. Anne’s for twenty years. Her co-residents include Sisters Norma Schmidt, Lois Zettler and Evelyn Volk.

The article recounts the beginning of Sr. Francesca’s vocation. "Sister Francesca had considered joining the convent earlier but, with her father's death when she was only 15, her mother needed her to help care for their large family. She quit school after grade 10 and helped her mother at home until she was 21. She learned to sew from her mother who was an experienced tailor in Poland."

Although she now wears a short black veil with her tunic, when Sister Francesca first entered the convent in 1938 she was "one of the people who actually sewed many of the traditional black habits with yards of pleated black fabric and the white wimple that covered the head and neck."

A lot has changed in the convents since Sister Francesca joined.

"There are more shared relationships between us now, whereas before you went to your superior and your superior told you what to do," she said.

In front of the School Sisters of Notre Dame motherhouse in Waterdown, Ontario

What hasn't changed is the reason for joining the convent, and the underlying concept of dedicating oneself fully and entirely to a calling to help others in need, a call that goes far beyond any desire for money and personal belongings, said the article.

Sister Francesca recently celebrated her 60th anniversary as a nun. She is 83 years old, the fifth of the fourteen children of Jan and Frances (Kunda) Paleczny on the Melchior Paleczny family tree.

[ Sr Fran's Photos ]

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