Vigil prayers for Sr. Juliana Heisler will be celebrated at 7 p.m. Monday, March 28 at St. Patrick Parish, 3339 Centennial Drive, Saskatoon, and the funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 29, also at St. Patrick Parish, with live-streaming available on the Saskatoon Funeral Home website.
Sr. Juliana Heisler, a Sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, died March 22, 2022 at Trinity Manor. She was predeceased by her parents John Heisler and Julia Leier and by her ten siblings.
Born in Allan, SK in 1931, when she was six months old, her family moved to Mildred, SK., where they lived in a granary until logs could be cut to construct a house. She went to high school first in Bruno, SK., and then for Grades 11 and 12 she went to Sion Academy in Prince Albert.
After graduation she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion located in Saskatoon. After the novitiate she went to Teachers College in Saskatoon and began her ministry in education.
Sr. Juliana Heisler was a life-long educator, a classroom teacher, principal, educational consultant, parish life director and spiritual advisor to the Saskatoon Catholic Women’s League for many years. She was the first female diocesan spiritual advisor in Canada.
Wherever she was, she had within her “a heart that was a big as the world” and beyond. In her classrooms and in her schools, children of all religious denominations were welcomed along with their own faith traditions affirmed and respected. Her passion for those who were impoverished and marginalized compelled her to do whatever was needed to be done to improve their lives and to open doors for them.
She had a special commitment to refugees and went to great lengths for them which included welcoming them into her own home.
In the midst of her very full life, she always found time for her older community members, doing what she could to improve their quality of life.
And always, there was her birth family whom she loved dearly and who gave her so much joy – the many and various travels, the times at the lake, fishing, playing cards, barbeques – to mention a few of her favourite family pass times. She will be greatly missed by her family, her community, and her many friends which she made during her long and very full life.
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