Sister Annella Wagner, 75 years
When Amelia Wagner had complications during a pregnancy in 1929, she prayed to Sister Annella Zervas, a Benedictine who had died three years earlier. She gave birth to a healthy daughter and named her Annella.
Annella grew up on a farm near Lastrup, Minnesota, one of five children born to Ted and Amelia Wagner. Her father’s family were German immigrants and she first learned to pray in German. The local towns were named after early missionaries – Lastrup, Pierz, and Buh – and life centered on the liturgies and socials of the parish church. At Annella’s First Communion in 1938, the presider asked for a priest and a nun to come from her class, and she thought, “That will be me.”
She attended public grade school through eighth grade and then worked on the farm for a year. “I proved a very incapable farmhand, especially when it came to milking cows.” In 1944 she took a bus to Brainerd to work at St. Joseph Hospital, first in the laundry and then in the kitchen with a Benedictine Sister from Duluth. Mother Athanasius Braegelman came to interview her, saw her potential, and offered her a full scholarship to attend Stanbrook Hall High in Duluth as an aspirant to religious life. She entered the Community as postulant in 1947 while still completing her high school degree and was given the name Sister Leonore.
In 1949 she made her first monastic profession and was sent to be a cook at McCabe Guest Home for retired men and women (which later became the McCabe Renewal Center), to learn all aspects of quantity food service under the guidance of Sister Louise Seuer. “On Sunday mornings we would have Mass in the chapel, then get dinner started, and attend Holy Hour to thank God for the graces of the past week and pray for the next week.” She spent two happy years there, and then was sent to Mary Hill Academy in Aitkin, a grade school, to be cook and housekeeper for the teaching Sisters there during the 1951-1952 school year.
After Final Profession in 1952, she was assigned to the Villa main kitchen that served the Sisters, the Stanbrook Hall and College of St. Scholastica resident students, guests, and employees. The Benedictine Sisters trained and guided her in learning menu planning, purchasing, preparation, production, and service. One summer she helped a Sister cook in Chicago, and another at St. Mary’s Convent in Duluth.
In 1957 she was sent to St. James Orphanage in Duluth and then to various parish convents for a few months at a time. In 1958 she was assigned to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Brainerd as Food Services Director. “Sister Adeline Zollar in Brainerd sent me to summer workshops at Fontbonne College in St. Louis where I learned how to prepare special diets and menus, purchase food, and manage employees. I joined professional organizations for food service directors, attended meetings, and learned from experienced leaders and peers within the industry. It gave me the confidence to be creative while keeping patients well-nourished and happy.”
In 1979 she happily resumed her baptismal name as Sister Annella, and in 1980 was assigned to the new Monastery kitchen and the Benedictine Health Center as Food Services Director where she established menus, policies and procedures, and personnel practices. In 1991 she was assigned to Benet Hall as Resident Assistant to manage the needs of the infirm Sisters. She retired in 2017.
Now she lives on Benet Hall, keeping active with many projects. When asked how she handled all the changes, she replied, “I think of Jesus telling Peter, ‘When you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go’ (John 21:18). I’ve tended the sheep and fed the flock, and now I’m waiting for the Shepherd to take me home.”
“Receive me, O Lord, according to your word and I shall live, and do not fail me in my hope.” (from Suscipe)
Sister Kathleen Hofer, 70 Years
Sister Kathleen Hofer was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and grew up in the small town of Michigan City, North Dakota, where her father was a banker. She was active in all school activities and was a lover of sports. She entered St. Scholastica Monastery in January 1953 while a sophomore in college and made first vows in July 1954. As was common for newly professed Sisters at that time, she began teaching in elementary schools in the Diocese of Duluth. For the next seven years she taught various grades in Duluth, Brainerd, and Aitkin, Minnesota.
Sister Kathleen received her bachelor’s degree from The College of St. Scholastica with majors in Medical Record Administration and Psychology. After completing an MBA with a major in health-care administration from George Washington University, she began her extensive and successful career in health care.
As an assistant and associate professor at The College of St. Scholastica, Sister Kathleen served as chair of the Medical Record Administration Department and subsequently as the first chair of the Division of Health Sciences. She was also active professionally in the Minnesota and American Medical Record Associations, serving as President of each. She was active in the International Congress on Medical Records and participated in international meetings around the world.
Sister Kathleen has been a leader in health care in Duluth since the early 1980’s, serving at various times as the CEO of the Benedictine Health System and, for 15 years, as CEO of St. Mary’s Medical Center. She served as Board Chair of the Benedictine Health System, St. Mary’s Medical Center/St. Mary’s Hospital of Superior, the SMDC Health System (of which she was a major founder), and Essentia Health East. In Minnesota she served on the boards of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and the Minnesota Hospital Association. She also was an active member of many other civic and health-care organizations at the local and state levels. Sister Kathleen’s leadership in health care during years of phenomenal change and challenges has earned her broad recognition.
Active as a Benedictine Sister of St. Scholastica Monastery, Sister Kathleen has served as Prioress, Treasurer, and as a member of the Monastic Council and the BSBA Board. She also served for more than 25 years on the Board of Trustees of The College of St. Scholastica, having chaired that Board for four years.
Sister Kathleen still pursues her love of sports, watching many teams during the course of their seasons. She is a news buff, following the news with intense interest. This and her active life are signs of her deep interest in and genuine commitment to God’s world and all its people.
Sister Lois Ann Glaudel, 60 Years
What life and joy Sister Lois Ann Glaudel brings to her vocation as a Duluth Benedictine Sister! Margaret Ann Glaudel was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to parents Lois and Roland in 1944. The seeds of faith were first planted in Margaret and her sisters Catherine and Mary by their parents. Margaret attended Our Lady of Victory (OLV) School in North Minneapolis where she graduated from 8th grade. It was at OLV where she first met the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery who were her teachers.
In a turning point in Margaret’s childhood, Sister Prudentia Moran came from Duluth to Minneapolis to talk to the school children about vocations. After this, Margaret decided that she wanted to attend high school at Stanbrook Hall in Duluth. By the time she graduated from high school she knew God was calling her to be a Sister.
Margaret entered the Community as a postulant in 1962, and in 1963 became a novice and was given the name Sister Lois Ann in honor of her mother. In 1968 Sister Lois Ann took her final vows as a Sister. She graduated with an Elementary Education degree from The College of St. Scholastica. She had always wanted to teach children and this dream became a reality. Her first teaching job was at St. Leo’s in Hibbing, Minnesota where she taught second grade.
In her early teaching career, Sister Lois Ann was blessed to learn from other Benedictine Sister teachers at Catholic schools in Hibbing, Brainerd, and Pine City. Highlights of her teaching included preparing 2nd students to receive their first Reconciliation and first Holy Communion as well as learning how to play guitar and playing and singing for children’s liturgies. In 1981, Sister Lois Ann was blessed to go to Chicago where she spent 42 years teaching and ministering at Catholic schools in the Windy City. Sister Lois Ann, along with Sister Arlene Kleemann, built a strong community with the people of St. Timothy’s and St. Mary of the Lake School and Parishes.
At these Chicago schools, Sister Lois Ann made a big difference in the families who had immigrated from Nigeria and other countries. She and Sister Arlene helped organize food drives and collected school supplies and clothing for the families as they adjusted to their new life. After Sister Lois Ann retired from teaching at St. Timothy’s, she and Sister Arlene were called back to St. Thomas of Canterbury School where there was a need. At St. Thomas of Canterbury, Sister Lois Ann assisted the teachers in the classroom helping children learn English, reading, and math.
In 2023 Sister Lois Ann returned to the Monastery and now brings joy to the Sisters, staff, and friends on a daily basis. She serves as an advisor to the Oblate Community, a receptionist at the information desk, and in prayer and community ministry.
“Community, family, friends, and former students have always been important to me.
God has blessed me in so many ways.” – Sister Lois Ann Glaudel
Sister Mary Susan Dewitt, 60 Years
Betty Ellen Dewitt was born in Wisconsin into a family of 13 children (in a home with one bathroom). From an early age she was aware of the feeling that she was searching for something, but what? In 1961 she came to Duluth to study Nursing at The College of St. Scholastica, hoping to find meaning and direction for her life. Filled with longing for God and attracted to the Community of warm, lively Benedictine Sisters, she entered St. Scholastica Priory in her sophomore year. Taking the name Mary Susan, she made her first monastic profession in 1964, graduated with a BA in Nursing, and made her final profession in 1968 while on mission in Chile.
In 1967 she was sent as a missionary nurse to Antofagasta, Chile, to run a one-person clinic in a poor neighborhood which served 35,000 residents. She learned Spanish rapidly and fell in love with the Chilean people, admiring their goodness, spontaneity, and faith and sharing in their poverty, but she struggled with her relationship with God, which she found too weak to help her in her work. She didn’t want to preach and was uncomfortable praying with people. A charismatic retreat transformed her, filled her with the Holy Spirit, and anchored her life in the heart of God. She took to praying with almost all her patients and saw miracles of healing and life changes. And she learned to play the guitar, bringing depth and joy to her prayer life and enriching the life of her parish, Salar del Carmen, where she played and sang regularly for Mass.
Her middle years in Chile were engulfed by the -life threatening and chilling revolution of Pinochet and the army against the legally and freely elected Salvador Allende. It began with bombs going off on the hillside behind her house and cars patrolling the streets at night with loudspeakers warning, “Attention! Anyone found on the streets at night after curfew will be shot on sight!” And they were. She suffered with the people, many of whose husbands and sons became desaparecidos – captured and killed by the army. Grief was rampant. “God was good to allow this after my life-changing encounter with the Holy Spirit, who encouraged me to strengthen and console my people beyond human powers.”
Twelve years later, Sister Mary Susan was called home to Duluth where, deeply homesick for the people and culture of Chile but filled with hope, she began Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and developed the grounding and inspiration for a new ministry as a chaplain. For 37 years she was chaplain at the Benedictine Living Community next door to the Monastery, bringing God’s love to all but especially to the residents. She called her ministry “Presence in the hall and along the way,” as the face of Christ to everyone she met: residents, staff, family, visitors. Every day she saw the Holy Spirit moving in her community, in her place of ministry, and in her own life. “Praise be to God!”