Sister Ermenilda Fischer, OSB papers

Sister Ermenilda Fischer, OSB was born Catherine Fischer in Bavaria on April 11th, 1867. She joined the community on August 14th, 1890, the first of her four natural sisters (Sisters Celestine, Imelda, and Felicitas) to do so. She made her perpetual vows in 1895.

Although suffering from tuberculosis, she was sent to Canon City, Colorado. There, Sister not only recovered, but was able to return to Chicago and teach generations of women to cook and sew. For her cooking pupils, she hand-printed "Menus with Directions for Preparing the Meals," while for her sewing students, she designed a cardboard device so that they could more easily create their own sewing patterns. She also provided her sewing students with a sampler of instructuve doll-sized garments demonstrating how to cut and stitch to finish them. At Saint Scholastica High School and Priory in Chicago, Sister oversaw the laundering, repair, and hanging of the schools' drapes. On July 26th, 1956, she was the final member of her family to die. She is buried in Calvary Cemetery.