Sister Lucille Geisinger, 77, died peacefully on November 20, 2014, at St. Scholastica Monastery after a long illness. Sister Lucille (Jeanette) was born on August 14, 1937, in Maple Lake, Minnesota, the third of Alfred and Isabelle (Windolph) Geisinger’s four children. She was in her fifty-fifth year of Monastic Profession.
A transforming time in Jeanette’s life journey began when she was seven years old, and she had to leave her Maple Lake farm home for Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children in St. Paul to begin her five year “home” life (1945-1950) as an inpatient with tuberculosis of the right hip joint. During her time in the hospital, her family moved to Big Lake, Minnesota where they bought their own farm. Sister Lucille states in her book, Varmints in my Vinegar Cup, “this hospitalization so profoundly influenced my subsequent life” that upon graduation from Big Lake High School she came to The College of St. Scholastica to pursue a career in Medical Records.
During her first two years at the College she became aware of an internal searching for something more than a “career”; she felt “the Christ within” inviting her to join the Benedictine community. She entered the community in 1957, made her first Monastic Profession in 1959, her Perpetual Monastic Profession in 1962 and in 2009 she celebrated her Golden Jubilee.
Sister Lucille’s life as a Benedictine Sister had a number of ministries which began with elementary education (6 yrs). During the late 1960’s Sister Lucille was diagnosed with acute rheumatoid arthritis at which time she was advised to move to a warmer climate, so from Chicago, Illinois, where she had been the Assistant Chief of Medical Records at Hines Veterans Administration Hospital, she moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she continued her health care ministry (16 yrs); writing articles, beginning her book & tutoring college students from Arizona State University (11 yrs.); returning to St. Scholastica Monastery in 2002 to become the Director of the Spiritual Resource Center (10 yrs.). Her rheumatoid arthritis became very disabling so she began her ministry of prayer and quiet suffering until her death.
Sister Lucille was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Charles Geisinger. She is survived by her two sisters Patricia Starboard of El Paso, Texas, and Frances Carbajal of Tucson, Arizona, numerous nieces, nephews and her monastic community
A Wake Service/Morning Prayer was held on Tuesday, November 25, 2014, in Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel, St. Scholastica Monastery, at 10:00 a.m. Visitation followed until the Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00, with Father Brian Schultz presiding. The Rite of Committal to the Earth was at Gethsemane Cemetery. Memorials to St. Scholastica Monastery are preferred. Arrangements were by Dougherty Funeral Home.