Magdalen Schimanski, CSJ
May 30, 1920 - July 4, 2009
“O God, my God, I seek you, my soul thirst for you...
I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory...
So I will bless you as long as I live.”
Psalm 63
Magdalen Gertrude was born in Racine, Wisconsin on May 30, 1920 to Frank Schimanski from Berlin, Germany, and Margaret Friedel of Marienbad, Austria. Magdalen was one of five sisters and two brothers. Only her sister Margaret survives her.
Magdalen was graduated from St. Catherine High School in Racine, Wisconsin in 1937 and in 1941 received a B.A. degree from St. Catherine College, St. Paul, with majors in English and German. In 1941 she won first prize in an Atlantic Monthly poetry contest for summer graduate study at the Breadloaf School of English in Vermont. She continued to love and write poetry for the rest of her life.
Entering the Novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1943, Magdalen received the name Sister Marie David on March 20, 1943. She pronounced her first vows March 20, 1946, and made her final profession of vows on August 15, 1949.
She earned a Master in Fine Arts at Catholic University of America in 1952.
Sister Marie David (later known as Sister Magdalen) began her career by teaching English in community high schools and then at The College of St. Catherine. Her life expanded to many phases of the creative arts, especially the visual arts. For most of her professional life, she was a member of the Art Department of St. Catherine’s College and for many years served as department chair.
Meanwhile she continued to develop her own skills as an artist by discovering and using new techniques. In her lifetime she created a large body of work. Some of her paintings can be seen on the walls of St. Catherine, Carondelet Center, Bethany, and a number of other places. She exhibited her work in numerous art shows including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Minneapolis League of Catholic Women, the Minnesota State Fair, the Catholic University of America, and elsewhere.
One of her first shows was at the Fulbright Exhibition in Rome, Florence, and Milan in 1952. Early in her career she enjoyed this Fulbright year abroad. Her rich life took her far afield through international travel and active participation in the arts. She took advantage of many opportunities that broadened her scope as an artist including a Hill Family Foundation grant for African area studies and grant opportunities for art studies in places such as Sicily and Hawaii. One of her most adventurous experiences was in 1974 when she served as a visiting professor of fine arts on the World Campus Afloat, a ship based out of Chapman College, Orange, California.
Sister Magdalen served as a planning consultant for three of the buildings on the St. Catherine campus. From 1958 through the 1960s she worked on chapel renovation and conservation, consulted about the concrete and glass windows for the St. Catherine library, and directed art department planning/ completion of the Art Building.
In the later years of her career as an artist and educator Sister Magdalen received the Outstanding Educator of America Award in 1972, a CSC Alumnae Grant for art studies in 1982, a Bush Family Foundation Grant for interim research in 1983, and after her retirement from St. Catherine in 1985 she studied painting in Hawaii.
All of her life Magdalen was a great reader and lover of literature, especially poetry, which she wrote throughout her life. In all of her endeavors Sister Magdalen searched for beauty and truth. Wherever she was, she maintained a studio for her own creative work, first at Carondelet Center and later at Bethany to which she had retired in 1993. She continued with her art work until a few months before her death on July 4, 2009.
Sister Magdalen was preceded in death by her parents, four sisters (Anna Schimanski, Sister Eugenia, OSF, Sister Aloys, OSF, and Marie Holly) and two brothers, Frank and Paul. She is survived by one sister Margaret Schimanski, nephew Mike Holly and other nephews and nieces, as well as the Sisters of St. Joseph and Consociates.
Reviewal (8:30 a.m.) and Mass of Christian Burial (9:30 a.m.) took place in Bethany Chapel on Thursday, July 9, followed by burial at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.
