A Memorial Mass for Sister Jane Wiessing, OSU, will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 9, in the Ursuline Academy Chapel in Oakland. Also known as Sister Kathleen Marie, she died on April 15. She was 90 years old and living at Mother of Perpetual Help in Shrewsbury.
The daughter of William Aloysius and Esther Rawlings Wiessing, she was born on April 17, 1935, in Springfield, Illinois. She entered the Ursuline community on July 15, 1953, and professed her vows on Jan. 16, 1956. She received a bachelor’s degree in classics from the College of New Rochelle and a master’s degree in counseling from Ball State University.
Sister Jane’s first ministry was at Ursuline Academy in New Orleans, where she taught fifth grade from 1959-60 and Latin and theology in the high school from 1960-69. She taught Spanish and theology at Ursuline Academy in Springfield from 1969-71. She taught at Ursuline Academy in St. Louis in 1973.
After receiving her master’s in counseling in 1972, she embarked on a pastoral ministry, serving at St. Mary’s Health Center in St. Louis from 1973-88. From 1988-92, she was a pastoral minister in Puebla, Mexico. Upon her return to the United States, she was coordinator of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, from 1992-93.
She was staff chaplain at St. Francis Health Center in Chicago from 1993-96 and staff chaplain at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Belleville, Illinois, from 1996-2000. She was a pastoral minister at Proyecto Vida Digna in Matamoros, Mexico, from 2000-01. After returning to St. Louis, she provided pastoral care at SSM Health Rehabilitation Hospital from 2003-10, was a caregiver for the Sisters of St. Joseph from 2004-07 and for an individual client from 2005-13.
She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers William, John and Fredrick Wiessing; and sisters Barbara Doyle and Angela Brancato. She is survived by sister Michelle Jegel and many nieces and nephews.
Sister Jane donated her body to Washington University School of Medicine for research.
