Louise Wirtz
d. August 27, 2013
Louise Wirtz
Mass of Christian Burial for Sister Louise (Lorraine) Wirtz, 98, of Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, will be 10:00 a. m. MDT, Friday, August 30, 2013 at Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, ND, with Father Abbot Brian Wangler, O. S. B. and Prioress Sister Paula Larson celebrating. Burial will follow in the Sacred Heart Monastery Cemetery.
Visitation for Sister Louise will be 2:00 p. m. to 7:00 p. m. MDT, Thursday, August 29, 2013 at Sacred Heart Monastery with a Wake service being held at 7:00 p. m. MDT
Sister Louise passed away Tuesday, August 27, 2013 at St. Benedict’s Health Center in Dickinson, ND.
Sister Louise (Lorraine) Wirtz was born on March 1, 1915, the fourth of fourteen children in the John and Mary (Bauer) family. Her first home was her father’s homestead in Outlook, MT, but the family moved to Kenmare when she was seven because her parents wanted their children to have a Catholic education at St. Agnes Academy staffed by the Ursulines. Early on, Sister Louise knew she wanted to be a nun, but she wanted a smaller community and, most definitely, one that would not ask her to teach—ever. “Teaching was not my cup of tea! I was willing to do anything else and, believe me, I got all kinds of jobs but not teaching,” she wrote in a brief biography. She entered Sacred Heart Convent when it was in Garrison and made her first monastic profession of vows August 20, 1935. Not being a teacher freed her for her real talents: just about everything else. She served within the monastic community as cook, gardener, laundress and procurator over the years. She had the talent for telling a good story, a hearty laugh, and an unfailing sense of humor. Her natural ministry field was in dealing with the elderly, especially at St. Vincent’s Care Center and Marillac Manor, helping to build both ministries from their beginnings. Her first top administration job, however, was at St. Luke’s Hospital in Crosby 1946-49. She had served as floor supervisor administrator in the first St. Vincent’s Home earlier (1941-46) in a house that once was a private mansion before it was a rooming house, a hotel of dubious reputation and the home and chancery office for the first bishop of the Diocese of Bismarck. There was a great need for a Catholic care facility for the elderly, and her talent for this work had solid credentials: “We had no money; we had no training—just what we had learned at home and in the convent about caring for old people. ” It was largely due to Sister Louise’s two terms as administrator (1962-67 and 1971-77) that St. Vincent’s Care Center went on to set the bar for excellent care. She was a hands-on administrator which included everything from nurse aide through maintenance. There was not a person or a brick she did not know personally. After numerous roles there she segued to its sister facility, Marillac Manor, an adjacent apartment complex for independent elderly who benefited from a pleasant, secure home setting that encouraged community among the residents. Her work in Bismarck in these ministries spanned 1941-89, except for a four-year period (1967-71) when she played a vital role in the new Sacred Heart Monastery in Richardton. She and Sister Loretta Jahner literally camped out in the monastery while it was being built and oversaw everything there was to see in order to learn how it all worked. She was the monastic procurator in those years and was a great steward of our new building before returning to St. Vincent’s and Marillac for another 18 years. As her macular degeneration and failing health grew worse, she officially retired to the monastery in 1994. That meant she just set about working at other necessary things until she had to change gears a bit and enter St. Benedict’s Health Center in Dickinson in 2003. Sister Louise was loved and loved that community, too, and she deeply appreciated the wonderful care she received in her ten years’ residence there. Sister Louise died August 27 at St. Benedict’s.
She will be greatly missed but lovingly remembered by her monastic family to whom she is still larger than life; by her siblings Clara Larson, Theresa Ankenbauer, and Paul (Marlis) Wirtz; and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends—this includes just about everyone who ever met her.
Click to View Program (PDF)
Burial Date: August 30, 2013
Funeral Home Dickinson, ND
Mass of Christian Burial: Friday: Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, ND
Visitation for Sister Louise will be 2:00 p. m. to 7:00 p. m. MDT, Thursday, August 29, 2013 at Sacred Heart Monastery with a Wake service being held at 7:00 p. m. MDT
Sister Louise passed away Tuesday, August 27, 2013 at St. Benedict’s Health Center in Dickinson, ND.
Sister Louise (Lorraine) Wirtz was born on March 1, 1915, the fourth of fourteen children in the John and Mary (Bauer) family. Her first home was her father’s homestead in Outlook, MT, but the family moved to Kenmare when she was seven because her parents wanted their children to have a Catholic education at St. Agnes Academy staffed by the Ursulines. Early on, Sister Louise knew she wanted to be a nun, but she wanted a smaller community and, most definitely, one that would not ask her to teach—ever. “Teaching was not my cup of tea! I was willing to do anything else and, believe me, I got all kinds of jobs but not teaching,” she wrote in a brief biography. She entered Sacred Heart Convent when it was in Garrison and made her first monastic profession of vows August 20, 1935. Not being a teacher freed her for her real talents: just about everything else. She served within the monastic community as cook, gardener, laundress and procurator over the years. She had the talent for telling a good story, a hearty laugh, and an unfailing sense of humor. Her natural ministry field was in dealing with the elderly, especially at St. Vincent’s Care Center and Marillac Manor, helping to build both ministries from their beginnings. Her first top administration job, however, was at St. Luke’s Hospital in Crosby 1946-49. She had served as floor supervisor administrator in the first St. Vincent’s Home earlier (1941-46) in a house that once was a private mansion before it was a rooming house, a hotel of dubious reputation and the home and chancery office for the first bishop of the Diocese of Bismarck. There was a great need for a Catholic care facility for the elderly, and her talent for this work had solid credentials: “We had no money; we had no training—just what we had learned at home and in the convent about caring for old people. ” It was largely due to Sister Louise’s two terms as administrator (1962-67 and 1971-77) that St. Vincent’s Care Center went on to set the bar for excellent care. She was a hands-on administrator which included everything from nurse aide through maintenance. There was not a person or a brick she did not know personally. After numerous roles there she segued to its sister facility, Marillac Manor, an adjacent apartment complex for independent elderly who benefited from a pleasant, secure home setting that encouraged community among the residents. Her work in Bismarck in these ministries spanned 1941-89, except for a four-year period (1967-71) when she played a vital role in the new Sacred Heart Monastery in Richardton. She and Sister Loretta Jahner literally camped out in the monastery while it was being built and oversaw everything there was to see in order to learn how it all worked. She was the monastic procurator in those years and was a great steward of our new building before returning to St. Vincent’s and Marillac for another 18 years. As her macular degeneration and failing health grew worse, she officially retired to the monastery in 1994. That meant she just set about working at other necessary things until she had to change gears a bit and enter St. Benedict’s Health Center in Dickinson in 2003. Sister Louise was loved and loved that community, too, and she deeply appreciated the wonderful care she received in her ten years’ residence there. Sister Louise died August 27 at St. Benedict’s.
She will be greatly missed but lovingly remembered by her monastic family to whom she is still larger than life; by her siblings Clara Larson, Theresa Ankenbauer, and Paul (Marlis) Wirtz; and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends—this includes just about everyone who ever met her.
Click to View Program (PDF)
Burial Date: August 30, 2013
Funeral Home Dickinson, ND
Mass of Christian Burial: Friday: Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, ND
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