Sister Carolita Greiner

Sister Carolita Greiner was born on January 5, 1924, to John and Eva Greiner, on a farm near Keota, Iowa, the second child in a family of nine. 

Her father wrote her a letter for her 35th birthday telling her about the night she was born when it was 24 degrees below zero.  He wrote, “The doctor had to stay all night because his car froze up soon after he arrived.  We burned a whole load of wood for you that night.  At breakfast prepared by Grandma Greiner the next morning he ate almost a whole glass of jelly on his toast. So, between a load of wood and a glass of jelly, it was a pretty expensive deal!”

Carolita went to a one-room public school a half mile from her home for three years and then transferred to Clear Creek School where the School Sisters of St. Francis were stationed.  She skipped a grade and graduated from eighth grade at age 11.

From there she went to Keota High School staying with her grandmother who lived in town.  After graduating from high school, she worked for two years before joining the School Sisters of St. Francis as a member of the class of 1943.  Her two aunts, Sisters Licinia and Marmenia Greiner, sisters of her father, were a great inspiration for her and surely influenced her decision to follow them to Milwaukee. As her aunts were an inspiration for her, she was an inspiration for her sister Cecilia who became Sister Laurelle in 1945 and her sister Terese who was received into the community in 1951.

Carolita graduated from Alverno College, still at that time located at our Motherhouse, and began her professional career in 1946 at St. Rita School in West Allis, teaching 2nd and 3rd grades for four years.  After four more years of teaching high school students in Earling, Iowa and Madonna High School in Aurora, Illinois, she moved to Alverno College where she taught home economics for the next 12 years. 

For the next 20 years Carolita was in administration including the School Sister Wisconsin Province, St. Catherine School and LaFarge Lifelong Learning Institute.

Through the years many of her students stayed in contact with Carolita through visits, telephone calls and letters.  She continued to influence them and their families, supporting them with her concern and interest as well as her prayer.  She was especially concerned about women being called to the vocation of homemaking and being educated and prepared for this awesome responsibility. 

Carolita always said she couldn’t have completed her professional life any better than by working for 8 years for the Franciscan Pilgrimage Program under the direction of Father Roch Niemier.  During this time, she had the opportunity to enlarge her appreciation of her own Franciscan heritage and to deepen her Franciscan spirituality through contacts with the Pilgrimage staff as well as participating in planning the programs.  This position gave her the opportunity to visit Rome and Assisi and many other places associated with Francis and Clare. 

Before moving to Sacred Heart in 2015, Carolita enjoyed living in the Motherhouse where she had begun her life as a School Sister of St. Francis in 1943.  She treasured living with his group of Sisters and praying daily in common with them.  She was sensitive to the needs of the older Sisters with whom she lived and was a positive presence to them and for them.

An important gift of her last years of living in Sacred Heart was the time she had for enriching activities and experiences along with extra quiet time for prayer and reflection, remembering especially her students, her family, her friends, her Sisters, especially those with whom she lived.  “The Kingdom of God is within you,” became her daily inspiration as she continued to be immersed in the happenings in our community and in the world doing what she could about the may needs she saw and felt.  May this Kingdom continue to grow within and among us. 

Thank you, Sister Carolita for blessing us with your presence among us.  Please continue to ask God with whom you share the fullness of the Kingdom of God that it continue to grow within and among us.