Sister Donna Marie Zetah

Sister Donna Marie Zetah, 88-year-old resident of St. Francis Convent passed away Thursday, March 15, 2018 at the St. Francis Convent in Little Falls, MN. A wake and a Franciscan prayer service were held for Sister Donna on Thursday, March 15, 2018 at the St. Francis Chapel in Little Falls, MN. A private burial took place in the Franciscan Sister’s Cemetery. A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Francis Convent Chapel on Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 11 a.m. Donations to Franciscan Sisters Ministries preferred. Funeral arrangements are with the Shelley Funeral Chapel in Little Falls, MN. Donna Marie Zetah was born on December 8, 1929, in Motley, MN. She was the fifth of six children born to the late Thomas and Elizabeth (Wagner) Zetah. Donna was accepted as a Franciscan Sister of Little Falls, MN on August 12, 1947. On entrance into the novitiate, she was given the religious name of Sister Mary Jerome. She made final vows on August 12, 1952. She was a Franciscan Sister for 70 years. People truly loved Sister Donna. She ministered to them in a gracious, gentle and compassionate manner. She adapted easily from one experience, one community of people, one area, to another with much confidence. Sister Donna believed that health education began at the primary care level. In her many years of service to Hispanics and migrants and as a missionary, her goal was always to ensure basic health care for everyone. When asked to name some significant experiences from her ministries she replied, “I think all my experiences have been significant. None seems less or more than another. I am often amazed at how one experience prepares me unknowingly for the next.” She had a great appreciation for her religious community and her family and felt supported by both in her service to the poor. Those ministries took Sister Donna to many parts of the United States and other parts of the world. Wherever people were underserved, she was there, moving from Minnesota to the Altiplano of Peru, to Honduras helping hurricane survivors, or to working with displaced persons in the jungles of Guatemala. Sister Donna ministered to migrants from New Jersey and Florida, from Michigan to Texas, from Idaho to Wisconsin and Ohio, and then back again to Minnesota where she continued to serve the immigrant population in Morrison County even as her own health declined. In each place, she made a lasting impact and formed lifelong friendships with those she served and with co-workers. Sister Donna served in various capacities: as a supervisor of the maternity floor at St. Gabriel’s Hospital, as a member of a mobile team forming health promoters in Peru, as an outreach nurse and clinic coordinator to migrants, as a pastoral minister to Hispanics in Chimayo, N.M. and in Long Prairie, MN, as a trainer and a supervisor of camp health aides, as a parish nurse and director of nursing care at St. Francis Convent. Sister Donna was preceded in death by her parents and siblings, Mildred Forster, Duane, Doris Mitchell and Urban. She is survived by sibling, Leona (Gail) Burton of Little Falls; her sister-in-law, Rose; nieces and nephews; and her Franciscan Community.