Sister Marcelina Casandro, OSF

WEST PEORIA — Visitation and a Mass of Christian Burial are planned for Friday, July 14, for Sister Marcelina Casandro, OSF. A member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Conception, she died July 11, 2017, at the community’s Mother of Peace Home.

She was 89.

Visitation will be held from 3:30 to 7 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Convent, 2408 W. Heading Ave., in West Peoria. The Mass, celebrated by Father Martin Mwongyera, will follow at 7 p.m.

Burial will take place on Saturday, July 15, at St. Mary’s Cemetery in West Peoria. The procession will start at Immaculate Conception Convent at 9:30 a.m.

The daughter of Selso and Francisca (Gorars) Casandro, Sister Marcelina was born June 30, 1928, in Moline. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Conception, also known affectionately as the Heading Avenue Franciscans, on Sept. 8, 1948, and made her religious profession on June 17, 1951.

Sister Marcelina served her community from 1951 to 1981, providing meals for the Sisters at St. Mary Convent in Henry, the motherhouse in West Peoria, and St. Mary Convent in Peru. She was a parish visitor at St. Joseph in Marseilles from 1981 to 1982, and worked in resident services and internal ministry at St. Joseph’s Home in Springfield from 1982 until her retirement in 2005.

When she celebrated her 60th anniversary of consecrated life in 2011, she said even in retirement she found joy in “doing small services for the Sisters and the residents” at St. Joseph’s Home.

Preceded in death by her parents, two sisters and six brothers, Sister Marcelina is survived by her nieces and the Heading Avenue Franciscans, with whom she shared her life for 66 years.

Memorials may be made to Retirement Fund, Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Conception, 2408 W. Heading Ave., West Peoria, IL 61604.