Three-quarters of a century after giving herself totally to God, Brinktown native Sister Anita Marie Lischwe of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) is preparing to meet him in person.

The longtime educator and nurse is receiving hospice care at Anna House of The Sarah Community in Bridgeton, near St. Louis.

She is the last living of five Lischwe siblings who entered Religious Life, including: the late Sister Mary Boniface Lischwe of the Medical Mission Sisters, the late Father Bruno Lischwe of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists), the late Sister Michael Marie Lischwe of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary (formerly the Sisters of St. Mary), and the late Sister Tarsilla Lischwe of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

“Sr. Anita Marie is part of a family legacy that echoes down through the generations,” said Sister Kathleen Wegman, a fellow School Sister of Notre Dame and Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell’s delegate for religious sisters in the diocese. “You couldn’t count all the people who have benefitted from each of their unique ministries in the Church.”

One of nine sons and daughters born to the late Joseph B. and Katherine (Wiegers) Lischwe, Sr. Anita Marie grew up on a farm near Brinktown and attended the former Holy Guardian Angels School.

The Lischwes were all close-knit, with daily prayer being built into the daily schedule.

Sr. Anita Marie’s older sister, Sr. Michael Marie, described their father as an adept farmer and their mother as a good homemaker, enabling the family to help neighbors who were less fortunate during the Great Depression.

Their mother was prayerful and subscribed to missionary magazines, which the children also read.

After eighth grade, as was their custom, each of the Lischwe girls left the farm to find jobs in St. Louis.

All four wound up becoming religious sisters.

“I knew I wanted to be a sister,” Sr. Anita Marie recalled. “There were no Catholic high schools near us. My mother talked to Sr. Tarsilla, my older sister, and she suggested I go to the Notre Dame Aspirature in St. Louis.”

Sr. Anita Marie did so and entered the SSND novitiate upon graduating. She professed first vows on July 29, 1950.

From 1950 through 1972, she taught primary grades at nine Catholic schools across Missouri and Illinois — including the former St. Boniface School in Koeltztown, Holy Family School in Freeburg and St. Joseph School in Westphalia.

“They were all good kids,” she recalled while visiting Koeltztown in 2006.

She also taught in Apple Creek, St. Louis and Washington, all in Missouri, and in Quincy, New Athens, and Radom, Illinois.

Sacramental preparation was a special passion for her. “I loved helping little children prepare for their First Holy Communion,” she recalled.

Sr. Anita Marie holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis. In 1970, she completed a master’s degree in elementary administration from Saint Louis University.

A major turn

In 1972, Sr. Anita Marie undertook a new ministry as a nurse’s aide at Villa Gesu, which was the SSND retirement home in St. Louis.

She dedicated five years there as a nursing aide before returning to school and earning her Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) certification.

She came back to continue ministering to elderly sisters through the early 2000s.

“I enjoyed my years at our Villa Gesu helping the sisters,” she said. “I am grateful I became a nurse.”

She holds “being the night nurse at Villa Gesu, attending to the sisters on the skilled care floor” as a special memory.

Sr. Anita Marie made a point of visiting the nearby cemetery each day and praying for those who had gone before her.

“On my visits there, I felt a warm welcome,” she recalled.

From 1999 to 2015, she served as a volunteer at Anna House at The Sarah Community retirement residence for religious sisters, and at Holy Angels Apartments in Bridgeton.

In 2015, she moved to Veronica House, also located in The Sarah Community, where she committed herself to a ministry of prayer and presence until 2024.

She later became a resident of Anna House.

Many are called

Five of the nine Lischwe siblings served God as professed members of religious communities:

As a School Sister of Notre Dame, Sr. Tarsilla (2014-2005) was a teacher for 48 years and served a dual role as teacher and administrator for 10 years at schools throughout California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, and Missouri, including St. Peter School in Jefferson City from 1971-93. She then served for five years as a parish volunteer at St. Peter.

As a Franciscan Sister of Mary (FSM), Sr. Michael Marie (1920-2010) served as an obstetrics supervisor and a surgical nurse at several hospitals and as an instructor to nursing students.

From 1982-85, she served as nursing supervisor and did parish work and home nursing in Maries County, then served for three years as supervisor and nurse at Villa Marie Skilled Nursing in Jefferson City, continuing her parish work and home nursing as well.

As a Medical Mission Sister (MMS), Sr. Marie Boniface (1922-2023) specialized in cooking, housekeeping, grounds maintenance and teaching young sisters from the city how to tend to the livestock at the MMS Motherhouse complex in Philadelphia, the MMS House of Studies in St. Louis, and the MMS community in Los Altos, California.

She wrote extensively and volunteered with the Foster Grandparents, accompanying children with disabilities, and served as office manager and attended to all the clients at a Catholic center for pregnant women in crisis.

As a Redemptorist Father (CsSR), Fr. Bruno (1926-2018) spent six years in full-time parish ministry; nine years in vocation ministry and part-time parish ministry; and 19 years as a staff member at Immaculate Conception Health Care Center in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

He was one of the original staff members at St. Clement Health Care Center in Liguori, Missouri, when the facility opened in 1988, and served there for 24 years.

“I want Jesus”

Sr. Anita Marie’s sister, Sr. Michael Marie, once recounted how God had used her as an instrument to bring baptism to a dying patient at Incarnate Word Hospital.

“He nodded to the cross, ‘I want Jesus,’” she recalled. “I, too, want Jesus — his will for me — and I rededicate myself to Mary, his Blessed Mother, who by accepting the motherhood of Jesus, became the cause of our joy today and forever.”

That seems to have been the goal for all nine of Joseph and Katherine Lischwes children — those who entered Religious Life, and those who served God through other vocations.

Originally printed in the Catholic Missourian. Reprinted with permission.