November 27, 1925 – April 17, 2025
Sr. Melchiada was born on 27.11.1925 in Veitsaurach. Her parents were Josef Winner and Theresia Winner, née Alberta.
Sr. Melchiada was baptized on 28.11.1925 in Veitsaurach with the name Theresia.
She grew up on her parents’ farm. She attended 7 years of elementary school and 2 years of vocational school in Veitsaurach. She then spent 9 years working in the household and on the farm, attending the housekeeping school in Eichstätt, St. Walburg.
In 1949 she joined the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother in Abenberg. She was invested on the Feast of St. Joseph in 1950 and after the two-year novitiate she made her first Holy Profession on St. Joseph’s Day in 1952 and her perpetual profession in 1957.
In the former Marienburg Hospital in Abenberg, she was trained as a nurse by Dr. Reeh, and after her novitiate in Köln-Hohenlind, she was able to take her final examination in the nursing profession.
After her novitiate, she worked for several years as a nurse in the Deining/ Oberpfalz retirement home. In 1956 she was transferred to Mainleus and worked there for 6 years in outpatient nursing. From 1962 to 1970, she worked as a nurse at the St. Stilla retirement home in Heilsbronn. After 8 years working in Heilsbronn, she moved to the St. Josef retirement home in Deining. During this time, she completed a course as a home manager in Freiburg, which enabled her to take over the management of the St. Josef retirement home in Deining. In 1991, she returned to the St. Stilla retirement home in Heilsbronn and was employed as the home’s manager and, at times, also as the local leader.
Sr. M. Melchiada was very close to nature. In addition to nursing, she loved the garden, which she tended with dedication.
In 2010, the Heilsbronn local community was closed and Sr. Melchiada spent her retirement at the senior citizens’ center in Abenberg. It was difficult for her to say goodbye to her garden in Heilsbronn. Despite her retirement, she also tended and cared for the garden of the senior center in Abenberg with great love and dedication and was also willing to perform other services. With regard to her garden, she later said: “If I had known that Abenberg was so beautiful, I would have come here long ago.” She was very close to nature and tended to the outdoor areas in every local community wherever she worked.
Over time, Sr. Melchiada needed more help and therefore moved to the Marienburg nursing home in 2015. Soon after, she was confined to a wheelchair and became bedridden. She endured her frailty with patience and humility and without ever a word of complaint for many years and was grateful for any help. She was a deep praying woman and accompanied many dying people with her prayers and her presence in her work as a nurse. She was characterized by great modesty, kindness and cordiality.
Her niece Jutta was a faithful companion to her every week.
She was called to her eternal home on Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2025.
On April 24, 2025, we celebrated the requiem in the Stilla Church and afterwards she was buried in the sisters’ cemetery at Marienburg in Abenberg. Her fellow sisters, nieces, friends and Father Willibald Brems, former pastor of the parish of Deining, were able to bid her farewell. He held Sr. M. Melchiada in high esteem.
Rest in peace!
Submitted by Sr. Beate Nieberler