Dateline: Great Bend, Kansas
Sister Frances Biernacki, 94, died March 28, 2022, in the Dominican Sisters’ convent infirmary, Great Bend. She was born February 25, 1928, in Garden City, KS, the daughter of Francis and Rose Mary Wolf Biernacki. She entered the Dominican Sisters Community in 1943 and pronounced vows in 1946. Sister Frances celebrated seventy-five years of religious profession in 2021.
Sister Frances’s early ministry was in elementary education, teaching in Kansas and Colorado for twelve years. In 1956 she was assigned to begin a new mission in Nigeria, and later was instrumental in the founding of a Nigerian Dominican congregation, the Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena. Her twenty-one years of mission work included serving in Kenya and Niger. Between times of service in the missions, Sister Frances earned her MSW, ministering in that field for sixteen years. She retired to the motherhouse in Great Bend in 2000.
Sister Frances was preceded in death by her parents, five brothers (John Fred, Leroy, Edmond, Raymond Charlie, David), and two sisters (Rosella Billinger, Evelyn Biernacki). She is survived by a brother Ivan Biernacki of Slidell, LA, several nieces and nephews, as well as the Dominican Sisters of Peace.
A Vigil Service will be held at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, March 30. The Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:30 AM on Thursday, March 31. Both will take place at the Sisters’ Convent. Burial will be in the Sisters’ Resurrection Cemetery. Memorials in honor of Sister Frances may be sent to Dominican Sisters of Peace, 2320 Airport Drive, Columbus, OH 43219-2098. Condolences may be sent and notice viewed at www.bryantfh.net. Arrangements by Bryant Funeral Home, 1425 Patton Rd., Great Bend 67530.