Sister Maria Sebastiane ND 5095 PDF Download
Katharina van der Linde
Maria Regina Province, Coesfeld, Germany
Date and Place of Birth: 02 October 1934 Dingden
Date and Place of Profession: 04 October 1964 Mülhausen
Date and Place des Death: 26 January 2023 Mülhausen, Haus Salus
Date and Place of Burial: 01 February 2023 Mülhausen, Convent Cemetery
“God has not given us a spirit of despondency, but the spirit of power, love and prudence.” 2 Tim 1:7
The words from the reading on the day of her death apply to the life of Sister Maria Sebastiane. She was a self-contained, positive person, very down-to-earth, and hardly anything could upset her. A fellow sister remembers that when she entered, her mother said to the novice directress, “If you manage to upset Kathrinna, you’ll get 5 D-mark from me!”
Kathrinna – as she was called at home – grew up with her sister and two brothers on the farm of her parents Johann and Auguste van der Linde in Dingden on the Lower Rhine. After elementary school, she attended agricultural school, from which she graduated in 1956 with the rural housekeeping exam. As a teenager, she was involved in the Catholic Rural Youth. She gladly and enthusiastically recalled the Klausenhof, a training academy for youths and young adults, which had been founded in her hometown during her youth. The then Rector of the Klausenhof, Prelate Wilhelm Wissing, drew her attention to the Sisters of Notre Dame in Mülhausen. She kept an honorable memory of him throughout her life.
On July 31, 1962, Sister Maria Sebastiane began her novitiate in Mülhausen. After her religious formation, she was fully committed to her work in the kitchen, housekeeping, education, and as local superior in various branches until her old age.
Sister was able to relax by doing handicrafts, listening to music, and she also enjoyed playing board games such as Yahtzee or Parcheesi. While doing so, she often commented, “When you play, you don’t talk about others.”
As she grew older, more and more health impairments became noticeable. Nevertheless, she looked after the cafeteria in Haus Salus, both from Kempen and later from the Mülhausen convent where she lived. She did this, too, with prudence and joy. In 2017 she moved once again to the community of Geldern to take over small services there despite health problems. Increasing health challenges required a hospital stay in November 2022. In the hospital she soon realized that she could no longer go back to Geldern, and she was relieved by her decision to move to Haus Salus. Unfortunately, she could not experience the retirement she deserved for her advanced age. Sister Maria Sebastiane could no longer leave her bed and was completely dependent on help and care. Each time she expressed her gratitude for all the services received. In the beginning, she was still able to contact her sister Gerda, with whom she had been very close throughout her life, by telephone.
Early in the morning of January 26, God took her to his eternal home.
by Dreamhost