Sr. Lucille (Genevieve Katherine) Bleile, OSU

The Livestream Link will be available HERE  (Livestreaming provided by St Anne's Roman Catholic Parish) on the day of the service and will go live approximately 5 minutes before the event.

Sister Lucille (Genevieve Katherine) Bleile, OSU (Prelate) was called into eternal life on April 19, 2025, at St. Angela Merici Residence, Saskatoon, SK. She was 103 years of age. 

Daughter of Balzaar and Barbara (Ziegler) Bleile, she was born on August 5, 1921, at Rosenthal, SK, the sixth of eight children. Music, family prayer and feast day celebrations were important features of her family life. Her elementary education was taken at the MacKenzie country school. Already at an early age she experienced a call to religious life. While taking her high school education at St. Angela's Convent in Prelate, she often served as a weekday companion to Sisters who lived in teacherages while teaching in country schools in the area. She told many stories of the hardships they endured: large classes, few resources, poorly built teacherages, temperamental horses, scarce food, dust storms and cold winters. 

She joined the Ursulines in 1936 and made her Perpetual Profession on August 15, 1942. Her 89 years as an Ursuline Sister included 35 years as a classroom teacher, 16 years in pastoral ministry, and over 20 years in active retirement. After attending Moose Jaw Normal School, she began her teaching vocation at Peerless, SK where she had 46 students from grades 1- 4, including 16 beginners who couldn't speak English. She was an enthusiastic and resourceful teacher with great ability to bring out the best in her students. She taught at Goodsoil, Mendham, Cosine, Barthel, Richmound, Tramping Lake, Shaunavon, Macklin, Leader, and St. Angela's Academy at Prelate. 

Gifted in music and fine arts, she put on outstanding concerts and dramas, and also directed church choirs and several performance choirs, such as the "Up With People" group at Macklin and Shaunavon; and the "Semitones" at Leader. 

In 1983-84, she attended Newman Theological College then served in pastoral ministry for 16 years in St. Charles and St. James parishes in Edmonton, doing sacramental preparation, assisting in grief ministry, helping the poor and mentoring seminarians. Her special love was working with candidates in the RCIA process. Her exuberant spirit, skillful creativity and artistic talents were great gifts to the parishes and community as she excelled in liturgy planning and preparing for feast days. 

She was an excellent cook and seamstress. An opera lover, during her Edmonton years she attended over 40 operas. 

Upon being elected to the Ursuline leadership team in 1999, she moved to Saskatoon. After her term in office, she was active for some 20 years, serving as a caregiver at St. Angela Merici Residence, making jams and jellies as well as designing and sewing over 400 quilts. The proceeds were donated to the Canadian Food for the Hungry International to provide funds for the digging of wells in Africa. 

She is lovingly remembered by her Ursuline Sisters and her nieces and nephews as a dynamic, outgoing, and high-spirited woman with great love of people, numerous skills and talents, and whole-hearted service of others. 

The Sisters and her family members extend their deep gratitude to the staff and caregivers at St. Angela Merici Residence for their loving care of Sister Lucille. 

She was predeceased by her father in 1959, her mother in 1976, her brothers, Edmund (Margaret Goldade), George (Monica Dillman) and John, her sisters Helen, Frances (Frank Goldade), Annie and Marie (Harold Tumbach) and all her in-laws. 

The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Anne's Church, 217 Lenore Drive, Saskatoon on April 29, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. 

The Rite of Committal will follow later at the Prelate Cemetery.