Statement – February 2025
January 21, 2026
Sister M. Benita Kordiak died peacefully at Rosary Care Center in Sylvania, Ohio on February 3, 2026. The daughter of George and Anna Kordiak came to the convent in Sylvania in 1945 from Immaculate Conception Parish in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. She attended St. Clare Academy in Sylvania and made her first profession of vows in 1950 and her final profession in 1953. She earned a B.A. degree from Mary Manse College in Toledo, Ohio, and a Master of Education degree from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan.
Sister Benita celebrated her 75th Jubilee as a Sylvania Franciscan Sister in 2025. For 35 of those years, she was involved in education where she taught elementary and junior high students in Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota. In a recent story of her life, Sister Benita expressed how happy and satisfied she was when she heard from students she taught, and they told her how she influenced them by her teaching, especially her example of Franciscan joy. She was delighted when she learned that some of her students became priests, Sisters, dentists, nurses, police officers (even a sheriff), and firefighters.
In 1985 Sister Benita began a new ministry as a Parish Minister at Holy Cross Parish in her hometown of Minneapolis, where she visited the homebound parishioners and assisted in a variety of church duties. She and her sister, Sister Donna, (also a Sylvania Franciscan), served in the parish until they returned to the Motherhouse in Sylvania in 2017. They continued to enjoy their life with the Sisters as they prayed, played and helped one another in their later years.
Sister Donna shared the prayer that she and her sister prayed every day:
“Jesus, bless all those I will see today, talk to today, or listen to today. Give them many blessings. If any of them want to do evil, turn them away from it. Amen.”
Sister Benita will be greatly missed by her Sisters in Community, especially Sister Donna, who took such devoted and loving care of her. She will also be mourned and missed by the caregivers at Rosary Care Center, and many family members and friends.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of St. Francis, Sylvania, Ohio. Arrangements by the Thomas I. Wisniewski Funeral Home, Toledo, Ohio.
Obituary written by Sister Mary Thill, OSF
