Sister M. Liobalda

Born: August 20, 1930
Entrance: August 13, 1954
Professed: May 3, 1957
Died: August 25, 2025

GOD, the good shepherd to whom she entrusted her life, led our Sister home to complete her 95-year journey through life, Sister M. Liobalda, née Johanna Muhle, Hospital Sister of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.

“The Lord is my sheperd;
I have everything I need.”

(Psalm 23,1)

Sister M. Liobalda was born in Olfen in the district of Lüdinghausen and grew up with her uncle. Her parents died when she was three years old. Two of her four siblings also became nuns. She learned cooking from the Franciscan Sisters at the Seppenraden hospital. At the age of 24, she joined the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, became a nurse, and a dietitian.

IIn Emstek and Ankum, Sister M. Liobalda managed the hospital kitchen and then, from 1984 to 1998, served as the Superior and housekeeper at the priests’ seminary in Muenster. This was the time when Pope John Paul II visited Muenster. He stayed at the seminary at that time. For the next ten years, Sister M. Liobalda was the convent superior at the Ahaus hospital. After that, she worked in the library of the Lüdinghausen hospital. Then she moved to the motherhouse and took care of the chapel of Maria-Trost home in Muenster.

In 2016, Sister M. Liobalda moved into St. Heriburg House as a resident. She was increasingly limited by her illnesses. However, this did not prevent her from regularly attending church services in her wheelchair for as long as she could. It was her wish that the psalm verse “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” should appear on her death notice. In this way, she wanted to tell us that she always knew she was in the hands of the Good Shepherd and was thus able to master her long life, even after the early loss of her parents and with her serious illnesses.

We gratefully bid farewell to Sister M. Liobalda. In prayer and in the celebration of the Eucharist, we remember her and remain united with her in sisterly love.