Sister Frances Josef Flach
November 17, 1937 – February 29, 2024
Martha Flach was born on November 17, 1937, daughter of Joseph Carl Flach, born in Vilmar, Germany, and of Frances Tures Flach, born in Chicago, Illinois, of German ancestry. She was the middle child, born between Carl and George. Carl was ordained a priest in 1958.
Martha was baptized Martha Johann Flach on December 5 at Saint Kilian Church in Chicago. Following eight years of grade school, she entered the Academy of Our Lady in Chicago, her first real acquaintance with the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She “did not have enough courage” to enter after high school, but continued her education at Mundelein College, also in Chicago. She went to Europe the summer after her first year there and prayed at Lourdes for the courage she needed. “I forgot about it for a few months, but Our Lady did not,” and her sophomore counselor helped her make the “decision which seemed impossible to me.”
Martha entered the Milwaukee motherhouse in 1957, and was received into the novitiate on July 2,1958, where she received the name of Sister Frances Josef. She was professed there the following July and took her final vows in the Mequon motherhouse (to which the Milwaukee motherhouse had moved.)
Frances got a Bachelor of Science from Mount Mary in Milwaukee in Mathematics and Physics in 1961. In 1970 she earned a Master of Arts in Mathematics at the University of Detroit, Michigan. Frances then taught full-time at St. John Nepomuc, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; St. Mary, Burlington, Wisconsin; McDonell Central High, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; St. Stanislaus Kostka, Chicago, Illinois; the Academy of Our Lady, Chicago, Illinois. (Chicago-DeKalb had become a province in 1965.)
From 1983, Frances was in a sabbatical/personal renewal program in Derham Community in St. Paul, Minnesota.
From 1986 to 1997, Frances was part of the staff-clerical support team at the Academy of Our Lady in Chicago. She served on the staff for diocesan programs from 1997 to 2007 and was employed by the Archdiocese of Chicago on the staff for Vicariate II in Chicago from 2007 to 2014.
Frances retired at Mater Christi in 2014, where she lived until 2019. Following that, she was at Marian Village, until she moved to Resurrection Life Center.
Visitation was held on Saturday, March 2, 2024, at Our Lady of the Angels Chapel at Marian Village in Homer Glen, Illinois. The pall was placed on her casket by her friends Marcianne Bzdon, Julice Bots and Rose Cecile Espinos. Sister Miriam Patrick Cummings led the Burial Service at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Miriam Patrick recalled visiting Frances at Marian Village and asking how things were going. “Fine.” She then asked how the food was. “Okay.” What do you miss? “Stew.” Miriam Patrick reflected that stew was an apt image for Fran: a combination of many things, all wonderfully combined.
As Sister Barbara Bowers, the local leader at Marian Village put it, “Fran lived simply; she was an excellent cook, who missed the commonplace meal of stew.”
Sister Carol Brunner also shared how Fran had touched the nurses and aides at Resurrection Life Center. There was genuine sorrow at the passing of such a gentle spirit.
By Charlaine Fill, SSND
