Roselyn J. Schmitt, 80, Sartell

January 5, 1935 - May 10, 2015

Roselyn Josephine Schmitt, age 80, Sartell, MN, died Sunday, May 10, 2015 at Legends at Heritage Place, Sartell, MN.

Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Benedicts Monastery, St. Joseph, MN. Visitation will be from 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Burial will be in the St. Benedict’s Monastery Cemetery, St. Joseph, MN.

Roselyn was born January 5, 1935 in St. Cloud, MN to Joseph M. and Barbara A. (Schneider) Schmitt. She attended grade school in St. Cloud and Red Lake Falls, MN and Fairmount, ND. After completing high school in Fairmount, she attended Valley City State Teachers College in North Dakota for a year, taught in a rural school near Wyndmere, ND, returned to Valley City State Teachers College for a year and then transferred to the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN. Roselyn received a B.A. degree with a major in elementary education from the College of St. Benedict in the summer of 1960. She taught grade school in Eden Valley, MN (1958-1960) and Staples, MN (1960-1964). Upon completing a master's degree in philosophy at St. Louis University (Missouri) in 1966, Roselyn taught at the College of Saint Benedict for five years, returned to St. Louis to complete a Ph.D. in 1978, and taught at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, MN until her retirement in 2000.

From 1955 to 1989 Roselyn was a member of the Sisters of St. Benedict in St. Joseph. She entered the Novitiate, receiving the name Sister Rosina, on June 19, 1956. She made her first monastic profession on July 11, 1957. Roselyn was granted a dispensation in 1989 but has always remained involved in the Benedictine community and is often called “Rosina”

After leaving the order “Rosina” moved to a lake home near the College, where she indulged in her favorite hobbies of bird watching and astronomy. She was a member of the Blue Bird Association and the Purple Martin Society. Space travel was a passion of hers. She would have loved to have traveled into space.

Survivors include her brothers, Joseph B.(Florence) Schmitt of San Diego, CA; sisters, Mary Jane Pauly of Wahpeton, ND; and Joanne Schmitt of San Diego, CA.

She was preceded in death by her parents, sister, Irene Hedtke, sister-in-law, Eicho Schmitt, brother-in-law, Robert C. Pauly and nephew, Edmund Pauly.

In lieu of flowers memorials are preferred to the St. Benedict Monastery.