In Loving Memory...

Sister M. Crescentia, CSC 
(Crescentia Anne Syndikus)
Birth: August 19, 1904
Profession: August 15, 1925
Death: February 16, 2004

Crescentia Anna Syndikus was born in 1904 to Alban Syndikus and his wife Christine in a small German town called Schweinheim. She was educated by Notre Dame sisters in Aschffenburg and entered from there.

After the First World War, Sister Mainarda, her aunt, went to Germany to visit her home and family and brought back with her to Saint Mary’s a number of relatives: Crescentia and her oldest sister, who became Sister Chrysanthus, and cousins Sisters Hermengild, Dolorissima and Louis Gonzague. A few others also joined them. They all traveled dressed like postulants, black veils and long, black dresses.

Crescentia entered the Congregation on September 2, 1922, received the habit on the Feast of the Assumption, 1923, made first vows in 1925 and final profession in 1928. She finished her high school courses at Saint Mary’s, entered the college from which she graduated in 1956 with a degree in education. In 1961 she earned a Master of Arts degree from the School of Sacred Theology.

She began her teaching career in the elementary schools of Indiana. One of her longest assignments was at the German School, Saint Mary’s here in South Bend, where she was a dearly loved teacher for 19 years. Her second time around, 1945-1950, she was also teacher and principal. Sister Janice says that she had Sister Crescentia for three years, not because either one was slow but because she and sister kept moving to upper grades together. Janice found her the gentlest and most soft-spoken and loving teacher she ever had.

In the summer of 1963 she sailed back to Germany with Sister Innocenza to join her family for the ordination of a Jesuit nephew on the feast of Saint Ignatius at Innsbruck, Austria. The entire family enjoyed the visit tremendously and was very grateful to the community for the permission.

Sister Crescentia describes herself in a thank-you note to a friend after her diamond jubilee in July 1985:

“Dear Sister, Thank you so much for your kind message for my Jubilee. It is a great grace that the good Lord let me live to celebrate my Diamond Jubilee. I do feel the weight of the diamonds as I go about my daily tasks. I do appreciate the wonders of nature that surround us and the creatures that enliven it and give it song. Each season has its own wonders and God’s loving care to all His creatures and His care to preserve it in its beauty alone should make us break out in hymns of praise and thanksgiving….”

One sister remembers having a classroom next to Crescentia. There was only a thin wall between rooms. She used to hear Sister Crescentia when she corrected papers. “If I had you here now,” she would say as she read through a paper. She was a thorough teacher who probably remembered most of those comments and repeated them when she returned the papers to the child.

At ten o’clock Monday night, Crescentia might have broken into hymns of praise and thanksgiving when she heard birds in their magnificence burst into song. I wonder what strange ones she now hears and sees.

Written by Sister M. Campion, CSC

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of the Holy Cross Ministry With the Poor Fund, Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556.