Eileen Veronica Rose Mullen was born on May 24, 1912, on the family farm near the Canadian border, between Colgan and Fortuna, North Dakota. The town in which Eileen was born was named after her maternal grandfather Mac Colgan. She was the second child of the homesteading pioneers Michael Joseph Mullen and Edith Eileen Colgan whose family grew to seven children: Joseph, Eileen, Monica, Rita, Elvin, Raphael, and Ruth. Eileen’s mother was a teacher and began the children’s education at home. The children attended Gooseneck Township elementary school and Fontana Public High School.
Eileen finished high school at St. Agnes Academy in Kenmare, North Dakota, taught by the Ursuline Sisters of Calvarienberg, Germany. She entered that Ursuline community in May 1929; received the habit on June 4, 1930, and became Sister Scholastica. (She returned to her baptismal name as did many sisters following the recommendations of Vatican II). She made perpetual vows in 1935. For over 50 years she ministered in diocesan schools in Illinois, at Fairmont City, East Saint Louis, Mounds City, Mascoutah, Belleville, and Millstadt, along with Bonnots Mill Missouri. Her list of assignments were as teacher, teacher-principal, and teacher-principal-organist. She taught on the junior high level, and especially liked teaching math. The small community in Illinois separated from the German community in 1983 to become the Ursuline Sisters of Belleville. Sister Eileen served on the leadership team of the Belleville Ursulines, taking on the duties of the local motherhouse leader. In 1995, Sister Eileen retired to the Motherhouse in Belleville. In 2005, the Ursulines of Belleville merged with the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, and Sister Eileen came to the Mount to reside in Saint Joseph Villa, the community’s nursing care facility.
Sister Eileen had a passion for travel. She and her sister Rita, who entered the Benedictine Sisters of Duluth, made many long car trips to Montana, the Dakotas, Arizona and Wyoming to visit friends and family. Eileen toured Alaska, went to Mount Calvary in Germany, to Rome for the beatification of Blessed Blandine Merten ( a Mount Calvary Ursuline) and to Focolaré meetings in Italy. Sister’s spiritual life was especially enriched by her activities in the Focolaré movement, a movement of spiritual and social renewal that focuses on the transformation of society by Gospel living and by doing God’s will in the present moment.
Sister Eileen died quickly, so peacefully quiet about noon on March 12, 2008. Father Michael Monshau, OP, a former pupil, celebrated the funeral Mass in the Mount Saint Joseph Chapel, Saturday, March 15. It seemed to be so appropriate that a group of 40 junior high students, who were on campus making a weekend retreat at the Retreat Center in preparation for their Confirmation, attended Sister’s funeral. Sister Eileen’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.