Arts & Entertainment

Sister Jean’s Wake and Funeral to Be Held at Loyola’s Main Chapel, Open to the Public

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the chaplain of the men’s basketball team at Loyola University Chicago who died last week, will be honored during a wake and funeral mass scheduled for later this week.

Sister Jean, who rose to stardom during Loyola’s fairy-tale run to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in 2018, died Thursday at the age of 106.

This Wednesday, a wake service and visitation for Sister Jean will be held at Madonna della Strada Chapel at Loyola’s Lake Shore campus. The chapel will open at 4 p.m. and the wake service will begin at 5 p.m. The visitation runs 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The funeral mass for Sister Jean will also be held at Madonna della Strada Chapel on Thursday. The chapel opens at 9 a.m., and the funeral is at 10 a.m. An overflow space will be at Rooney Hall in Loyola’s Mundelein Center.

The services this week will be hosted by Loyola and the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Seating for the wake and funeral will be open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. A burial for Sister Jean will not be open to the public.

Filming and photography will not be permitted inside the chapel out of respect for those grieving, according to Loyola. The services will be shared via livestream on luc.edu/sisterjean.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Sister Jean’s memory to the Worship, Work, Win Fund, which supports student-athletic excellence and student-athlete welfare, or the Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, BVM Scholarship, an endowed scholarship fund that provides full and partial scholarships to current Loyola students with financial need, according to a news release.

On her 106th birthday on Aug. 21, Sister Jean wrote a message to Loyola students and faculty that she had a “bad summer cold and other health issues” that made her unable to celebrate on campus this year. The student newspaper the Loyola Phoenix confirmed last month that Sister Jean was retiring and stepping back from official duties at the university.

In a 2023 appearance on WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” to talk about her memoir, “Wake Up With Purpose! What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years,” Sister Jean spoke about how she wanted to be remembered.

“I would like to be remembered as a compassionate person, one who really wants to relate to people, help people,” Sister Jean said. “To remember me as someone who really loves God and loves them and loves what I do.”

 

Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]

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