Sr. Joan Gerads

Little Falls, Minnesota............Sister Mary Joan Gerads, 93, died on January 25, 2025, at St. Francis Convent, Little Falls, Minn.

Genevieve, or Jenny, as she was called, was born on December 17, 1931, in St. Francis, Minn. (Stearns County). She was the sixth of nine children born to the late Martin and Mary (Roettger) Gerads. She was accepted as a Franciscan Sister of Little Falls, Minnesota, on August 12, 1949, and given the name Sister Mary Joan. She made her first profession of vows on August 12, 1951, and final vows on August 12, 1954. She was a Franciscan Sister for 75 years.

She became a registered nurse at St. Gabriel’s School of Nursing, Little Falls; later, she earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a master’s degree in nursing education, and a PhD in sociology.

Sister Joan ministered as staff nurse, supervisor and instructor; coordinated the first home care program at St. Gabriel’s Hospital, Little Falls; was assistant director of St. Gabriel’s School of Nursing; and director of health and social services in Maracay, Venezuela. During her 35 years as a missionary in South America, she was instrumental in founding four schools for leadership training. In 1975, she and Maryknoll Father Tom Maney founded Parish Neighborhood Renewal Ministry, a program that trains missionaries to form Base Church Communities in poor neighbors. She also offered the program in the Diocese of Duluth, which extended to other U.S. dioceses. 

Sister Joan had a gentle determined way of proceeding in her many projects. She had a great love for the poor and believed that no matter how poor or uneducated, each person has an inherent gift to give and a unique knowledge or experience to teach. She believed that the development of people did not consist in guiding them toward a defined goal, rather it was the freeing of the innate energies God gave each person to follow God in each person’s heart.

Sister Joan is survived by siblings Teresa Allen, Veronica Salazar and Marty Gerads and by nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, great-great-nieces and nephews, and her Franciscan Community. 

She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers Paul (Cecilia) and Hubert (Elaine), and Gregory (Dorothea); sisters Elinor and Sister Bertha, OSF; brothers-in-law Enrique Salazar and Jim Allen; and sister-in-law Virginia Gerads.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at St. Francis Convent on Saturday, February 1 at 11 a.m. Friends may call at St. Francis Convent on Friday, January 31, from 4-8 p.m., with a Franciscan prayer service at 7 p.m. and from 9 a.m. until the time of the funeral on Saturday at 11 a.m. Mass will be livestreamed on YouTube: youtube.com/@FSLFvideos. Arrangements are by Emblom-Brenny Funeral Service, Little Falls.

Donations to Franciscan Sisters ministries preferred.