Schwester M. Maristella
Born: April 28, 1928
Entrance: January 27, 1956
Profession: October 28, 1958
Died: April 27, 2025
On the morning of Divine Mercy Sunday, our sister, Hospital Sister of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis and born by the name of Maria Willen gave her life back into God’s hands.
Virgin, Mother of God,
(Prayer to Mary)
let me be wholly yours!
Sister M. Maristella was born in Lewinghausen near Löningen on the Willen family farm, where she grew up with her three sisters and four brothers. Before joining the congregation, she completed her nursing training at the Augusta Hospital in Düsseldorf. She came to our congregation through the Franciscans sisters in Glandorf near Osnabrück. She initially worked as a ward nurse in several hospitals and, from 1979, as a community nurse in her old home town of Essen/Oldbg., Lastrup and Löningen. Sister M. Maristella was very popular there and is still fondly remembered by some of the families she cared for. In 2012, she moved to the St. Heriburg-Haus in Münster as a senior citizen. One day before her 98th birthday, God called her home.
Daily Holy Mass had been familiar to her since childhood and gave her strength for her long journey through life.
Born Maria and later Sister Maristella, she felt a special connection to the Mother of God. She was very fond of praying the Rosary. She wanted the image of Our Lady of Telgte on her death card, also as a sign of her connection to the founding place of our congregation.
She consciously lived her faith until the end and walked the path hand in hand with the Mother of God. May she now accompany her on her final journey to God.
We gratefully bid farewell to Sister M. Maristella. We remember her in our prayers and in the celebration of the Eucharist, and remain united with her in sisterly love
