Two Benedictine Sisters Celebrate 75th Anniversary
February 15, 2009

To live past the age of 90 is remarkable in itself, but to spend 75 of those years faithful to the same life commitment is even more cause for celebration. The sisters at Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, gathered on Sunday, February 15, to witness the diamond jubilee of not one, but two, sisters who have reached that amazing mark in their lives. Sisters Theophane Reinecke and Sienna Rohlfer made their monastic profession in 1934 and have devoted their entire lives to their Benedictine community and their ministry of education.

Sister Sienna was an elementary teacher and principal, sometimes both at the same time, in a number of area schools, including St. Joseph's in Atchison. Kevin Van Dyke remembers it well. "I sweat bullets when she called me for what seemed like a very long walk up to her desk, trying to remember what I might have done, and what she might be going to do to me, only to find out that she just had a holy card to give me from my aunt!" When she saw Kevin's brother after 40 years, as with other students who have visited her, she recognized him immediately and could tell stories of his grade school life. Her eyes light up when she remembers those years and her students. "I never had a discipline problem in school," she says, and Kevin and the hundreds of others she taught, know why. "Sure, she was strict, but the students always knew she loved them. She was one of the greatest things that happened to St. Joseph's School."



Sister Theophane also began as a grade school teacher but spent the last half of her career teaching high school. She, too, shaped many people in Atchison as an instructor and principal at Mount St. Scholastica Academy at various times in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Like Sister Sienna, she also has many admirers, and can still recognize students and tell stories about them. Sister Anne Shepard, prioress, describes her as gracious and compassionate, with a gentle manner that was sometimes misleading to students who thought they could take advantage of it. Margie Begley remembers her as "firm but fair. She was very pleasant, but it seemed that if we tried to ride the elevator or do anything we shouldn't, she caught us every time." When some 1972 graduates came to visit in June, they admitted to Sister Theophane that they had returned after curfew one night. "I know," she clearly recalled, "you were the ones always sneaking around St. Cecilia's to smoke."

Sister Anne expressed admiration for the sisters in her remarks at the ceremony of their renewal of vows. To the sisters and to the many family and friends attending, she said, "Both are remembered for their care and love. They have spent their lives in community and service to others. More than that, to this very day, they continue in their most important ministry. They pray for all of us every day."

For their part, the jubilarians see that work as what has sustained them these many years. "The years went by fast," says Sister Sienna. "There have been many changes in customs in our monastery, but not in the most important things." These two lives would show that keeping one's eye on the important things can lead to more than 75 years of faithfulness and happiness.