Joan Nuss

A Funeral Mass for Sister Joan Nuss, 98, Richardton, will be Monday, December 28, 2015 at 10:00 a. m. at Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, ND with Abbot Brian Wangler celebrating. Burial will take place at Sacred Heart Cemetery. Visitation for Sister Joan will be from 2:00 p. m. – 7:00 p. m. , Sunday, December 27, 2015 at Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, ND with a Rosary & Vigil service being held at 7:00 p. m. Visitation will continue one hour prior to the Mass on Monday, December 28th at the Monastery. Sister Joan passed away Wednesday, December 23, 2015 at Sanford Health St. Vincent’s Continuing Care Center, Bismarck, ND. Sister Joan (Mary Eva) Nuss, O. S. B. of Sacred Heart Monastery in Richardton, but residing at Sanford St. Vincent’s Continuing Care Center in Bismarck, entered eternal life December 23 at the age of ninety-eight. She was born November 22, 1917, the eighth of ten children of Catherine (Wanner) and Frank Nuss of Dickinson. She was nine years old when her father died in 1926 and later her mother married Stephen Frank. With this marriage she gained ten step-siblings. She was the last to die of the combined family of 21 children. In 1940 Sister Joan entered the convent and began her monastic formation, making her first vows in 1942. On the occasion of her 60th jubilee in 2002 she said simply, “I wanted to serve God. I always wanted to be a Sister as a young girl and I am happy I am here. ” Three of her sisters became Franciscans in Rochester, MN, and she was the lone Benedictine. Monastic life suited her and she always prayed vigorously for more vocations to our community. Throughout the years in community she served in areas of domestic service, occupational therapy and nurse’s aide at St. Vincent’s Nursing Home in Bismarck and St. Luke’s Hospital in Crosby, and was an expert crafter of so many things throughout all her years. Her favorite work by far was doing craft activities with the residents of St. Vincent’s where she served for so many years. She excelled in making rugs and all sorts of projects on the loom. She wanted to go to any parish supper that served homemade chicken noodle soup so she could heartily enjoy several bowls full. No one enjoyed noodles—in every shape and form—as much as Sister Joan. Though she was short in stature she was tall in things that mattered: deep prayer and serving others. She had a good sense of humor and a glorious laugh. She could tell some great “olden days” stories because so much of her life was spent working at St. Vincent’s. She was well loved by the staff there where she spent her last years in the memory care unit. She would have occasions of lucidity and right before her death was one of those as she said the “Our Father” with Sister Anna Rose. She is survived by numerous nieces and nephews, as well as by the Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery.


Click to View Program (PDF)


Burial Date: December 28, 2015

Funeral Mass: Monday, Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, ND