Sister Mary Catherine

Servite Sister Mary Catherine Izral, OSM, 97, died peacefully November 17, 2016, at Regina Senior Living, Hastings, Minn. She was born in Chicago on April 30, 1919, to John and Teresa (Zahora) Izral, who immigrated to the U.S. from Jablonka, a village in Austria-Hungary that today is part of Poland. Her family moved to a farm in Catawba, Wis., when she was in first grade. After completing high school she moved back to Chicago, where she worked in the hosiery department at Sears “when they still had silk socks,” she would recall with a grin. She entered the convent of the Servants of Mary in Ladysmith in 1939 and professed first vows in 1941. Last August she celebrated 75 years of religious profession. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of St. Catherine and a master’s from the University of Minnesota. She taught in Catholic elementary schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Illinois for 35 years and later taught religious education and did sacristy work at St. Agnes Parish in Saint Paul, Minn. She retired to Regina Senior Living in 2007. She was preceded in death by her parents and five sisters. She is survived by her brother John, a retired Catholic priest living in Mississippi, and the Ladysmith Servite Sisters. Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated at Regina Memorial Chapel, 1285 Nininger Rd, Hastings, on Monday, November 21 at 4:00PM with visitation one hour prior to Mass. Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at our Lady of Sorrows Church in Ladysmith, Wis., followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. Burial will be in the convent cemetery in Ladysmith.