A funeral Mass for Sister M. Camille Szydlowski was celebrated April 10 at the Theresa Center Chapel at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis. Sister Camille died April 2 at Veronica House-The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. She was 88.
The sixth of eight children was born to Mary Helen (Kuciejczk) and John Szydlowski on June 9, 1937, at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis. She was baptized at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church on July 4, 1937, and named Loretta Agnes. The Szydlowski family consisted of four boys and four girls, three of whom entered religious life: Father Robert, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis; Sister Mary Ann, a Daughter of Charity; and Sister Camille, a School Sister of Notre Dame.
Loretta attended Most Sacred Heart of Jesus School, staffed by the Sisters of Loretto. She enrolled at Rosati-Kain High School, staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. She worked at DePaul Hospital during her high school years and had contact with the Daughters of Charity who ministered there. During this time, she often thought of becoming a teacher and teaching children in foreign lands. Once Loretta acknowledged that God was calling her to a religious vocation, the most difficult decision was to decide which congregation to enter.
Loretta entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis on Sept. 1, 1955. She was received into the novitiate on Aug. 1, 1956, and given the name Mary Camille. She pronounced first vows on Aug. 3, 1957, and final vows on Aug. 3, 1963.
After two years of college courses, she taught at St. Francis of Assisi in Brookhaven, Mississippi. She taught for eight years as a teacher at St. Gabriel the Archangel in St. Louis, followed by roles at St. Mary in Fort Madison, Iowa, and St. Joseph in Farmington. She was also a principal in Fort Madison and Farmington.
She received a bachelor’s degree in history from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis in 1960 and a master’s degree in elementary administration from Saint Louis University in 1970.
In 1969, she was asked to go to Okinawa, Japan, fulfilling the long-held hope she had since she was young. In January 1970, she became the principal at Christ the King International High School in Okinawa for two years. She served five years as a teacher at Notre Dame Girls’ Secondary School in Kyoto. During a summer, she volunteered in Seoul, South Korea, working in a hospital with orphaned/abandoned children.
In 1978, she completed a sabbatical then taught at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in St. Louis, St. Joseph in Manchester and St. Peter Cathedral in Belleville, Illinois. In 1991, she spent a year as the switchboard operator and receptionist at Catholic Family Services in St. Louis. Next, she was a secretary at St. Mary Magdalen School in Brentwood for two years and then a teacher there for six years. In 2000, she went to teach at St. Thomas the Apostle School in Florissant. In 2007, she began 16 years of community service as a driver at Sancta Maria in Ripa. As her health declined, she was missioned to Veronica House-The Sarah Community in 2023. In mid-March 2026, she was placed on hospice.
Sister Camille was preceded in death by her parents, Mary Helen and John Szydlowski; her sisters, Sister Mary Ann, DC, Elizabeth Rimini and Jane Szydlowski; and her brothers, Father Robert, Theodore, John and Stanley. She is survived by nieces, nephews, family members, friends, sisters in community and SSND associates. Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa Cemetery.
