November 22, 1934 – July 22, 2024
Sr. M. Teresa was born on November 22, 1934 in Bakoyjákó, Hungary. She was the second child of Josef and Rosalia Reindl, née Kanzler, and was baptized Teresa on November 25, 1934.
She attended elementary school in Hungary from September 1941 to 1944. In November 1944, her mother fled with the three children to Germany during the war years to escape the Russians. They were housed in Hof an der Saale. Sr. Teresa attended elementary school there until 1945 and learned German.
In September 1945, the mother returned with her children to their homeland in Hungary. Sr. Teresa attended elementary school in Hungary from January 1946 to December 1947.
On January 6, 1948, the family was expelled from Hungary by the Communist Party. They lived in Werdau in Saxony for about a year and then fled from East Germany to the West on August 12, 1949 to Wicklesgreuth near Ansbach. The father, who was released from American captivity in 1948, lived there.
Sr. Teresa now attended vocational school in Ansbach and learned to sew from Sr. Ruperta Stangassinger, SSM, in Heilsbronn.
On July 15, 1950, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother in Abenberg. After that, she worked for a year as a kindergarten assistant in Stadelhofen near Bamberg and then for a year as a sewing course assistant in Heilsbronn.
On August 12, 1952, she was invested and received the name Sr. M. Valentia. In 1969, she was allowed to use her baptismal name as a religious name again.
After the two-year novitiate, she made her first profession on August 12, 1954, and her Perpetual Profession on August 12, 1949.
In September 1958 she attended the kindergarten seminar in Abenberg, in order to serve as a kindergarten teacher in various newly founded branches (Altdorf, Bamberg, Mörnsheim and Fiesen-Kronach) after passing the exam.
From 1968, she was no longer able to practice her profession due to a severe case of rheumatism. For two years, she lived in Rome/Capannelle with our fellow sisters and was able to experience relief from her illness there through a rheumatism cure.
In August 1970, she returned to Abenberg and worked as a seamstress in the sewing room.
From 1972 to 1985 she was a kindergarten teacher again, namely in the kindergarten in Abenberg, from 1985 to 1987 in Schwabach and then in Burgoberbach.
In September 1997 she came to Eichstätt to work as a kindergarten teacher at the Mother-Child Sanatorium St. Stilla and returned to Abenberg in January 2000.
Sr. M. Teresa was always willing to listen and was always ready to help. When the borders to Hungary were opened, she spared no effort and sent many parcels to her home country. Despite the sometimes very severe physical limitations and pain, she was a cheerful person who also enjoyed doing handicrafts.
Sr. Teresa needed more and more help in the end and therefore moved to the Schwesternwohnheim on August 4, 2022.
In 2024, she would have celebrated the 70th anniversary of her religious vows, but due to her serious illness, she was no longer able to celebrate it publicly. Her strength continued to decline, and so she was able to go home to God peacefully on July 22, 2024. Of the three siblings, her brother Josef Reindl is still alive.
She was buried on July 24, 2024 in the Sisters’ Cemetery in Abenberg, surrounded by her fellow sisters, her grandnephew, her grandniece, her friends and acquaintances. After the funeral, we celebrated the Requiem in the Stilla Church.
Rest in peace!
Submitted by Sr. Beate Nieberler