January 18, 1928 – February 3, 2022
Sister Maria Kirsch died at the Caritas – Senior Center in Abenberg on February 3, 2022 at the age of 94.
Sister was born on January 18, 1928 in Unterbuchfeld, Parish Deining and baptized the same day, January 18.
She was confirmed on June 8, 1940 in the parish church of Neumarkt, Upper Palatinate.
She was the second child of Michael and Maria (Schmidt). She also had two brothers and one sister. Her brother Johannes died some days after Sr. Maria’s dead.
Sr. Maria attended the elementary school in Siegenhofen for seven years and then the agricultural vocational school. After the vocational school, she was in service with relatives for ten year and when her father died, she worked on the parental estate. Her younger sister, Sr. Anakleta, SSM too, entered in Abenberg before her and died in Bruck-Leitha, Austria, before her.
Sr. Maria Kirsch writes in her curriculum vitae “that she would like to spend the rest or her life in the convent.”
On October 20, 1955 she entered the convent Marienburg in Abenberg.
She received the religious habit on August 12, 1956 and made her first profession on August 12, 1958. On August 12, 1963 she professed her perpetual profession.
After the novitiate, she worked temporarily in Schwabach in the hospital for infectious diseases and in Deining. In 1959 she was transferred to Pullach and worked there as an assistant in home nursing.
From 1975 -1976 she was trained as a nurse for the elderly in Munich and successfully completed her training. After the transformation of home nursing into a nursing association, she was tirelessly on the road, caring for those in need of care and accompanying the dying. Many families still appreciate Sr. Maria’s work today.
Due to the restructuring of the home in Pullach, the sisters had to leave Pullach, and Sr. Maria retired to the Senior Center St. Josef in Abenberg on May 4, 2001. In the so-called retirement department, she helped in the convent kitchen with the food input on the wards, with nursing-needy home inmates. She was very thoughtful and accompanied with the wheelchair many home residents who could not go to church or to the service by themselves.
Sr. Maria enjoyed participating in community prayer and community life.
She was very devoted to the Virgin Mary, and admired greatly Father Rupert Meyer, who is buried in the Bürgersaal in Munich.
In the course of time, she herself needed more and more help and was transferred to a nursing station in the Caritas – Senior Center in October 2015. In June 2021, she moved with them to the new senior center and was very happy and content in her new surroundings.
Father Brand gave her the anointing of the sick.
Her state of health deteriorated more and more. During her last few weeks, she had to spend several days in the hospital. She no longer wanted to accept major medical measures.
Special thanks to the nursing staff and fellow sisters as well as Father Brand.
Provided with the Sacraments of the sick and accompanied by her fellow sisters, she passed away peacefully on February 3, 2022.
On February 8, 2022, she was buried in the sisters’ Cemetery in Abenberg, and afterwards we celebrated the Requiem Mass in the Church of St. Stilla. The nieces and nephews of Sr. Maria Kirsch were also present at her funeral.
Submitted by Sr. Beate Nieberler