Sister Hildegarde grew up on a farm in Hettinger County. She is the eldest of six sisters. Her deep-rooted faith began in childhood, nurtured by regular Sunday Mass at a small country church.

At the age of 14, Sister Hildegarde started thinking about a religious vocation. She describes experiencing a profound sense of peace when she thought about becoming a sister. When she pushed the idea aside, the feeling of peace was gone. She shares, “I enjoyed the sisters I met at vacation Bible school and admired their joyfulness and sense of humor. At the age of 18, Sister Hildegarde joined Annunciation Monastery and never looked back.
When Sister Hildegarde entered the novitiate, her first assignment was in the St. Mary’s Convent kitchen at 304 Ave. A West. She learned not only cooking skills but the importance of etiquette and hospitality. She says, “I still pay attention to etiquette at the dining room table.”

Her next assignment after making her first profession was being a cook at St. Joseph’s Church in Mandan with Sister Francis Schweitzer. Sister Hildegarde recalls living in the school at the time, saying the sisters slept there--18 of them in one classroom!

After a year in Mandan, she was sent to St. Patrick’s in Dickinson where she served with Sister Carmelita Schlosser as cook, laundress, and housekeeper. She was in Dickinson for eleven years before returning to Annunciation Monastery. Sister Hildegarde brought with her a spirit of reverence for all tasks, rooted in her farm upbringing and the Rule of St. Benedict. Whether working in the kitchen, in the garden, at the pottery wheel or in the art room, she approached each task as sacred, saying, “I saw my tools as vessels of the altar.” Silence, work, and reading have been key components of her contemplative life.

She reflects on the past 70 years of monastic life as a blessing. She encourages women to “come and see” what this life is like. “It is a gift to work with a variety of people who come together with different personalities and backgrounds. We pray together, we grow together, and we support each other. Our prayer life is very important. It is a beautiful and fulfilling life.”