June 26, 2009
Five Ferdinand Benedictines celebrating golden jubilees
Five Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their monastic profession on Sat-urday, July 4, at Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdi-nand.
Benedictine Father Anthony Vinson will preside at the 1 p.m. jubilee Mass in the monastery church. Benedictine Sister Mary Claude Croteau will deliver the address at the ceremony.
A reception for family and friends will follow in St. Ger-trude Hall in the monastery.
The jubilarians, Sisters Mary Austin Blank, Mary Emma Jo-chum, Mary Cheryl Uebelhor, Rosa Lee Koch (formerly Sister Mary Carl) and Mary Oliver Reising, entered the monastery in 1957 and made their first profession of monastic vows in 1959 and their final profession in 1962.
Sister Mary Austin, a native of Cincinnati, entered the mon-astery from St. Cecilia Parish in Cincinnati. She has served in educational institutions since 1961. She taught at St. Theresa and Mater Dei High School, both in Evansville, and at the former Marian Heights Acad-emy, Ferdinand, where she also served as admissions director and president.
She served at Sacred Heart College, Belmont, N.C.; Elms and Associates, Asheville, N.C.; Felician College, Lodi, N.J., and Brescia University, Owensboro. She worked as a development associate at the Ferdinand mon-astery. She served as an academic counselor and teacher at the University of Phoenix In-dianapolis campus. Currently, she works as an online academic instructor for the University of Phoenix and Harrison Coll-ege, formerly Indiana Business College.
Sister Mary Emma, a native of Huntingburg, entered the monastery from St. Mary Parish. She has been ministering as director of religious education at St. Paul Parish, Tell City, since 1993. Before that she served as associate director and as director of religious education for the Diocese of Evansville and also at St. Joseph Parish, Vanderburgh County, and St. Clement Parish, Boonville.
She taught at St. Thomas in Vincennes, St. Mary in Washing-ton, and Holy Cross in Fort Branch, where she also served as principal. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Southern Hills Counseling, Inc.
Sister Mary Cheryl, a native of Schnellville, entered the monastery from Sacred Heart Parish. Currently, she works as a math instructor at Brescia Uni-versity in Owensboro. Prior to that, she was president and a teacher at the former Marian Heights Academy, Ferdinand, and business manager at the monastery. She taught and served as dean of students at the former St. Benedict College in Ferdinand, and taught also at Vincennes University Jasper Campus, Ferdinand High School and St. Theresa School and Mater Dei High School, both in Evansville.
Sister Rosa Lee, from Evansville, entered the monastery from Sacred Heart Parish. She currently works as an assistant in the monastery business office. Prior to that, she served as administrative secretary and worked in the development department and the monastery gift shop, which she helped establish. She served for 16 years in the missions in Guatemala and Peru and was one of the founders of the sisters’ mission in Peru. She taught in Ferdinand at the grade school, high school and academy and in Evansville at Christ the King School.
Sister Mary Oliver, a native of Evansville, entered the mon-astery from Resurrection Parish. She taught at Mariah Hill, St. Philip in Posey County, and St. Henry. She also taught religious education at St. Henry and served as teacher and director of religious education at St. Ferdi-nand Parish, St. James in Haub-stadt, and St. Bernard in Snake Run. She worked in parish ministry at St. John, Evansville, and at Our Lady of Lourdes, Owens-boro. She worked in the monas-tery kitchen and bakery and served as organist at liturgies. Currently, she does various ser-vices at the monastery as well as artwork for the gift shop.