Then and Now

Sister Edith Marie Martinek, IHM

Sister Edith Marie Martinek credits her parents, James and Edith, for her vocation. Their deep faith, devotion to their weekly worship and their lives of personal prayer inspired her and Duns Scotus, a Franciscan monastery, provided her with an atmosphere of peace and prayer.

She joined the IHM Sisters shortly after her high school graduation and was joyfully received into the community in June 1954.

Her first teaching assignment was at Christ the King in Detroit. “I spent 36 years teaching small children,” Sister Edith Marie notes. “They were ever new and provided fun and challenge.” Schools included nine in Michigan and one each in Minnesota and Florida.

Following her mother’s death, she returned to school to prepare for a new ministry in pastoral care. After the school year ended in 1991, Sister Edith Marie left St. Albert the Great School in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. She began serving in pastoral ministry at Resurrection Parish in Standish, Michigan. She stayed for 15 years before retiring.

“In ministry, I gave my time and energy to the spiritual care of the sick, the homebound, the hospitalized and the dying,” she says. “These dear people teach you much about gratitude.”

A friend notes that Sister Edith Marie’s 50^th Jubilee was a highlight, not just for Resurrection Parish, but for the town too. “She was remarkably patient in her hospice situations. Love and thoughtfulness are her hallmarks; ‘generous’ is her middle name. There isn’t any Catholic in any town in the Bay area that doesn’t know her. She traveled all the dirt back roads in her days at Standish; hospitality was always given to her.”

The friend also notes that “the beautiful sidewalk memorial where families purchased bricks wouldn’t exist without Sister Edith Marie. Sections were dedicated to scripture selections, and with wonderful plants and statues, it became a retreat space for prayer and reflection.”

Sister Edith Marie left Resurrection Parish in 2009 and began ministering as a volunteer, first at the IHM Motherhouse and is now back in the Bay area.