Sister Maria Lioba ND 4249 PDF Download
Maria Hanisch
Maria Regina Province, Coesfeld, Germany
Date and Place of Birth: November 23, 1934 Ohren, Sudetenland (today, Czechia)
Date and Place of Profession: April 23, 1957 Mülhausen
Date and Place of Death: August 09, 2023 Mülhausen, Haus Salus
Date and Place of Funeral: August 16, 2023 Mülhausen, Convent Cemetery
“I will give you a future and hope“.-Jer 29:11
Sister Maria Lioba had this promise of God – presented in her own calligraphic style – as a picture in her room and thus always in her mind. From the certainty of this promise she had shaped her life.
Maria was the second child born to Franz and Maria Hanisch. She had and elder and a younger brother; her younger brother Rudolf is still alive. Due to the war events of 1945 Maria was separated from her parents and came to a priest in Rongstock in the Sudetengau. In 1946, she was driven from her homeland. The expulsion entailed a frequent change of school; in 1948, Maria finished the basic elementary and secondary school in Ulfa, a district of Nidda at the foot of the Vogelberg Mountain. In that same year she met her parents again. In August 1948, she found accommodation as a house daughter in Sanct Lioba Haus in Bad Nauheim. Here she got to know the Sisters of Notre Dame.
After attending the home economics school in Ratingen and the remedial class in Mülhausen Maria was able to pass the school examination and thus created the prerequisite for attending the women’s technical school for nursery school teachers and after-school care workers in Mülhausen-Oedt. During that time, she lived in the school for aspirants to prepare for religious life. Well-equipped for her later task as an educator she asked to be admitted into our congregation in 1954.
As Sister Maria Lioba she ministered from then on as an educator for every age group: in nursery schools and in the home for boatmen’s children; in various boarding schools she was also entrusted with the management. From 1970 she ran the dormitory for girls in Mönchengladbach for 16 years; after it had been closed, she took loving care of the resettlers‘ group in Mülhausen and later she was in charge of the guest services and the management of the educational institution Antoniushaus in Mülhausen.
In her special way she passed on her firm faith in the promise of God to all she met. Her care, her friendliness, and her helpfulness knew no distinction and no time. She was tirelessly eager to fulfil every wish. Many contacts and thank you letters, which she received even years later, testify to this.
When her increasing dementia became apparent and Sister Maria Lioba moved to Haus Salus in 2013, she continued in her role as “host sister”; she inquired about the condition and wishes of her counterpart. She offered her help everywhere. She, who had always been on duty and wanted to help everyone was very relaxed towards the end of her life and grateful for any help she now received.
For months she had repeatedly expressed the wish that Jesus would call her home. On the morning of August 9 her wish was fulfilled. The hope that had sustained her all her life has now been fulfilled in her eternal home with God.
by Dreamhost