Mother of God Monastery
110  28th Ave. SE ~  Watertown,  SD  57201
Phone: 605-882-6600  Fax: 605-882-6658
monastery@dailypost.com

OBITUARY

Sister Sylvester Friedt

Sister Sylvester Friedt, age 86, died unexpectedly on July 10, 2000, in Maryhouse Nursing Home in Pierre, South Dakota. She joined other residents for breakfast. Later in the morning she came out into the hall and gave one of the nurses a kiss on the cheek. A short time later, one of the nurses aides went into her room to call her for lunch and found her.  Isabella was born in Mott, North Dakota, on January 4, 914, one of nine children of Benedict and Catherine Steiner Friedt. She loved the outdoors and regularly helped with the farm work, including harvesting.
Isabella was inspired to enter a religious community when her cousins, three sisters from Sacred Heart Convent in Yankton, came to her home. On October 12, 1928, at age 14, she entered the Yankton Convent. She began her novitiate on August 12, 1930, receiving the name Sister Sylvester. When Sacred Heart Convent established a new foundation in Pierre in 1961, Sister Sylvester transferred her vows to the new community, Mother of God Monastery.
Throughout her years of ministry, Sister worked in food service, serving in hospitals in Canon City, Colorado, and Yankton, Gregory, Tyndall and Pierre, SD. She also served in parish schools at St Mary's in Richardton, ND and at Yankton, Dimock, Webster, Zell and Stephan Indian Mission on the Crow Creek Reservation. At Bethlehem Cave near Rapid City, she ran a gift shop.  In 1982, Sister returned to the Monastery to minister as breakfast cook and baker. She loved to fish and often treated the sisters to a fish fry. Sister Sylvester lived in Pierre since 1955. Since she suffered a massive stroke four years ago, Sister had been a resident of Maryhouse Nursing Home in Pierre.
Sister Sylvester is survived by her sister Celestine Mosbrucker of Mott, ND; many nieces and nephews; and her Sisters of Mother of God Monastery.