Sister M. Rosalia Lang, OSF

EAST PEORIA — A Mass of Christian Burial was offered on Dec. 27, 2023, at the motherhouse of The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis here for Sister M. Rosalia Lang, OSF, a longtime nurse and leader in her religious community.

Sister Rosalia died on Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023, at the motherhouse. She was 99. Burial was at Mater Dolorosa Cemetery on the motherhouse grounds.

Born on July 2, 1924, in Stausebach, Germany to Pius Lang and Pauline Gruss Lang, Sister Rosalia entered the convent on March 1, 1951, at Bad Pyrmont, Germany. She graduated from St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing in 1958, and received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from St. Mary College in Kansas.

During her 72 years of religious life, Sister Rosalia served in a wide variety of health care, spiritual, administrative, and prayer support roles. These positions included orthopedic supervisor at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, nurse and night supervisor at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac, and director of nursing service at Sacred Heart Hospital, Fort Madison, Iowa.

For six years, Sister Rosalia worked as a missionary nurse in Ecuador. Returning to East Peoria, she was appointed superior at the OSF motherhouse. She worked a recovery room nurse at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, and at the Ambulatory Recovery Day Care and Outpatient Surgery at Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.

For many years, Sister Rosalia served as superior at the convent in Rockford, and later as sacristan at Saint Anthony Medical Center.

In 2013, she was transferred to the East Peoria motherhouse to serve in the Apostolate of Prayer and Suffering.