A reader asked for a post about Sister Mary Aloysia, the founder of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Coesfeld, my community. So here is a brief biography.

Sister was born Hilligonde on January 9, 1828, to Catharina and Otto Wolbring. They lived in the Netherlands. A brother died before his first birthday. Then when Hilligonde was four years old, her father died. Her mother remarried but died a year later. A new mother was brought to the house.  The stepparents were more interested in Hilligonde’s large inheritance than her upbringing. With them she was pampered and became vain and stubborn.

A priest wrote Hilligonde’s great uncle, Gerhard John Wolbring, about the situation. Gert walked a hundred miles from Germany where Hilligonde’s father was born to fetch her. He took her to his nephew who had six children living at home. At first Hilligonde rebelled. She said, “I don’t have to milk cows. I’m rich.” When other children received favors, she would become angry and scream, “I don’t care. I’ll be married before you because I’m rich.” In time, Hilligonde’s kind aunt, who was used to taking in poor children, improved her. She would take Hilligonde with her to give clothes and food to the poor.

So Hilligonde wouldn’t have to walk far to school, Gert saw that she lived with her teacher and his wife. Later she also attended evening classes. After graduating, she spent two years at home learning homemaking skills.

One day Gert took her to an estate, hoping to find a husband there for her. On the way home, Hilligonde remarked, “The cage is lovely, but the bird will not be lured.” She had dreamed of being a missionary, but In those days, women couldn’t be missionaries. So she decided to be a teacher.

After attending the Teacher Training College in Muenster, Hilligonde’s first job was as an assistant to an almost completely blind woman who taught primary grades at St. Lambert’s School in Coesfeld. This is the parish where the church housed the famous Coesfeld cross, allegedly a gift of Charlemagne to the converted Saxons. It contains a relic of the true cross.

Elisabeth Kühling, who taught older girls, became Hilligonde’s good friend. In those days many people in Germany were poor. Hilligonde brought extra food to share with the children. Then she was inspired to use her money to purchase a home for poor children.

When Elizabeth heard the idea, she asked, “Why don’t you let me help you?” So a house on Süring Street became home for seven children. Then a larger house was needed, so the group moved to a home called Annathal.

In 1849 the parish priest, Father Theodor Elting, proposed that the two women become religious sisters.  So three sisters from a congregation with St. Julie Billiart’s spirituality came from Amersfoort in the Netherlands to train them in the religious life. The next year on October 1, Hilligonde became Sister Maria Aloysia, and Elizabeth became Sister Maria Ignatia. Two years later, they made vows.

In 1853, Sister Aloysia was asked to go to the town of Aldekerk. She taught, but Sister Ignatia trained the novices. Sister Ignatia died in 1869 of abdominal cancer.

When Bismarck forbade religious sisters to teach in Germany, Sister Aloysia travelled with eight other sisters to the United States. They arrived on the Fourth of July and saw fireworks. They went to Cleveland, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, where they had to adapt to a new language and different food. In Cleveland, Sister Aloysia taught children of German immigrants, cooked for the Sisters, and was a sacristan at St. Peter’s Church.

When there were 200 Sisters of Notre Dame in the United States, Sister Aloysia was asked to go to Delphos to teach and to care for four elderly persons in the convent. She did this until the major superior of the community asked her to care for orphans at Mount St. Mary’s in Cleveland. This is the work she had always dreamed of doing. She was there until she died on May 6, 1889.

Sister Mary Aloysia is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in a common grave with 41 other Sisters. In 2014 a memorial stone was placed on the site of the orphanage, which is on the grounds of the Benedictine Abbey.  Sister Mary Aloysia, a quiet, unassuming Sister, would be happy to know the community she began now numbers about 2,000 Sisters and spreads the Good News all over the world.

Note: This week I will be on retreat and away from my computer, so I probably will not have a post the following week. Pray for me please.

• How have the Sisters of Notre Dame figured in your life?