Detroit — When Sr. Mary Frances Gilleran, IHM, learned that she had an aggressive form of cancer, her sisters said she embraced that cross and let the congregation she led see how God could work through it.

“She prepared us very well along the way,” said Sr. Joan Mumaw, who since 2006 has served as vice president of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary alongside Sr. Gilleran. “Her faith was strong, and her ability to choose her path, I think, demonstrated her faith. She let us see that, walked with us, and shared what that experience did.”

Sr. Gilleran, who had been president of the Monroe-based religious order since 2006, died of cancer July 9 at the age of 67. Having battled it for more than two years, it reappeared aggressively in March, since which time she had been in the IHM Health Care Center in Monroe.

“Though she was ill, her leadership persisted,” Sr. Mumaw says. “It was very amazing, really.”

Those who knew Sr. Gilleran well said she was spiritual and a deep thinker who often had deep messages for those around her.

“Mary Fran lived her Catholic faith journey within the mystery of God,” said Sr. Marge Polys, who had known Sr. Gilleran since 1965 and had lived with her in recent years. “She was not afraid to live into the deeper questions, the soul questions. She told me that living from within in the mystery of God’s love is the whole point of life. Nothing else will sustain us.”

Sr. Gilleran’s friends say she was an avid storyteller, and someone who enjoyed the water, reading, and travelling. In her ministry, she was ardent in emphasizing a life of sustainability, both for herself, her sisters and the community.

Though never one to fade into the background, she wasn’t the most vocal of the sisters, they say. But when faced with making a decision about her own life, and death, she embraced it as a teaching opportunity.

“Mary Fran is a private person, but she chose to share her journey with all of us,” says Sr. Polys. “She wrote several letters to the community about what was happening to her.”

Sr. Polys says Sr. Gilleran was always one to be proactive when it came to moral decisions — “She always seemed to be one step ahead, seeing what was right and needed.” — and she was the same way about the medical questions facing her.

“She was very conscientious and conscious about each of her decisions,” she says. “Her choices were choices. Things didn’t just happen to her — she made choices.”

Tom Brennan, co-founder of the Green Garage sustainability center in Detroit, says he knew Sr. Gilleran as “one of the finest, truly 21st century leaders I have ever worked with.”

“When people are trying to do things that are very different than the status quo, she is the great encourager,” he says, explaining that Sr. Gillerand was central in encouraging him to help found the Green Garage. In fact, it was because of Sr. Gillerand, he says, that they started the initiative in Detroit instead of Ann Arbor.

“She got us thinking about Detroit,” he says. “The next thing we know, we’re downtown on Second Avenue.”

In keeping with her life’s work stressing sustainability, Sr. Gilleran was given a “green burial,” known to be more economically friendly, on July 11.

Sr. Mumaw will now serve as the interim president for the IHM Sisters — of whom there are 400, mostly in the Detroit area — until the congregation’s regularly scheduled elections in January 2012.

Sr. Gilleran was one of seven children born to George and Kathleen (Brunett) Gilleran. She was born April 23, 1944. She attended St. Matthew Elementary School and Dominican High School in Detroit and became a member of the IHM sisters in 1963, taking the religious name of Sr. Kathleen Thomas.

Sr. Gilleran earned a bachelor’s degree from Marygrove College, a master’s degree in religious studies from the University of Detroit and a master’s degree in conflict management and organizational change from Antioch University, Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Prior to serving as IHM president, she taught elementary school at St. Frederick in Pontiac, and St. Columban in Birmingham. She spent more than 40 years in pastoral work, ministering at St. Columban Parish and at Glenwood United Church of Christ in Windsor, Ontario, as supervisor of ministry training and associate in lay ministry. Following a year as coordinator of IHM Visitation House of Prayer in Monroe, Sr. Gilleran became chaplain and adult education teacher at Madonna Villa in Fraser. She then spent five years teaching those in the deacon preparation program at Sacred Heart Seminary, Detroit.

Sr. Gilleran co-founded and ministered with the Women’s Sources and Resources Center and in the IHM Office of Life Planning, served as a provincial for the Northeast Province of the IHM congregation and worked with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. She spent eight years working with organizational change, facilitation and conflict management and worked with a variety of religious communities and organizations in the United States and Canada.

She is survived by her sisters, Regina Butler and Helen Roach (Kenneth), her brothers, Gerald, James (Ann), Paul (Carol) and Thomas (Judy) Gilleran, as well as 24 nieces and nephews, 48 grand-nieces and nephews and her sisters in the IHM community.

Memorials in Sr. Gilleran’s honor may be made to the IHM Ministry Fund, 610 W. Elm Ave., Monroe, MI 48162-7909.