Sister M. Geroldis Beterams
Born: December 7, 1935
Entrance: August 10, 1957
Professed: May 3, 1960
Died: November 21, 2024
Our dear Sister M. Geroldis Beterams has returned her life to the good hands of our God. Hospital Sister of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.
God has written us in his hand
Cardinal Höffner
and God’s hands are good hands..
Sister M. Geroldis was born in the flower town of Straelen in the Lower Rhine region of Germany. Her family was the source of many flowers for the decoration of our motherhouse. She went to school in Straelen. She met our Sisters in the hospital there.
As was customary at the time, she trained as a nurse after her novitiate. However, she never worked in that profession. Immediately after graduating, she went to work in the large bakery that belonged to the Motherhouse. Sister M. Geroldis learnt the baking trade and became a baker’s apprentice. In 1973 she became the first and so far, only nun in Germany to be allowed to call herself a master baker. This special achievement was the subject of a separate article in the Newspapers in the district of Nordrhein Westfalen.
Besides the large Motherhouse, the bakery also supplied St Francis Hospital, St Heriburg House and House Maria Trost. Under the direction of Sr M. Hadwigis and Sr M. Geroldis, a number of interested workers were employed. At this time of the year, before the Advent season, an additional fourteen quintals of ginger biscuits were baked so that each person could receive a bag of biscuits as a Christmas gift. Many young sisters also got involved in this project. Sister M. Geroldi’s specialty was cakes. She made them individually for all the feasts and holidays and spoiled us with them.
After the bakery was closed in 1998, Sister M. Geroldis went to Maria-Hilf convent in Telgte, where she served at the convent entrance and also cared the house chapel until she moved to St. Heriburg House as a senior citizen a few years ago, where she gave her life back into the hands of God after a long illness.
We gratefully bid farewell to Sister M. Geroldis. We remember her in prayer and in the celebration of the Eucharist. We remain united to her as sisters. We will celebrate the Holy Mass for Sister M. Geroldis on Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 2 p.m. in the Motherhouse Church. We will then accompany her to her final resting place in the Sisters’ Cemetery. Afterwards, we can share our memories of her over coffee in the Motherhouse
