Louis Marie Hages

Mankato Mortuary
388-2202

Our beloved Sister Louis Marie Hagen, 87, died peacefully at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at Good Counsel Provincial House, Mankato. Sister Louis Marie's overall condition had declined in recent weeks, and she entered Hospice this past week. Sisters Justin Wirth, Janet Wermerskirchen and Jana Roberts were with her when she died.

The funeral Mass for Sister Louis Marie, with Father Ted Hottinger, SJ, as presider, will be at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, May 3, in Good Counsel Chapel, followed by burial in our cemetery. The vigil service will be at 7:00 p.m. on May 2. Loving sympathy to her sister Dorothy Raway, and her brothers Harold, Robert, Walter and Paul (Mildred), her nieces and nephews and their families, her former students and colleagues, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, Helmer and Mary (Brehm) Hagen, a brother Lawrence, and her sisters, Agnes Frederick and Doris and Rosella Hagen (who both died in infancy).

Sister Louis Marie, the sixth of ten children, was born November 7, 1923, in Mankato. At that time, her family lived in Marysburg, a small settlement a few miles north of Madison Lake, where her father operated a filling station and grocery store. The family living quarters were in the back and upstairs of the store. A few weeks later at Immaculate Conception Church in Marysburg, she was baptized Mary Adeline (but was known as Adeline). Her father was a Norwegian Lutheran and her mother, a German Catholic, and their mixed marriage had met with family opposition. Both were from Wisconsin, but on the day of their wedding, they moved to Minneapolis where he was employed as a cabinet maker. The family later moved to Eagle Lake, and then to Marysburg.

Adeline attended the one-room district school for first grade. Late that spring, the store burned to the ground. Sister Louis Marie described it, "There was no insurance, and the charge account records were all destroyed in the fire. Neighbors and friends helped save bedding, furniture and clothing. Different families each took one of us children into their homes temporarily." Sometime later, her father was employed by the village of Madison Lake, and the family was reunited in a home there. The Hagen children then attended All Saints School. Their mother had a huge garden and canned hundreds of quarts of vegetables and fruits to sustain the family in the Depression years. In spring, she raised plants for transplanting and sold them to help raise money for books and school supplies.

Sister Louis Marie wrote about her school days: "I loved the sisters at school and often helped with sacristy work. Sister Anaclete was my second and third grade teacher, and she prepared me for the reception of Holy Communion. It was then that I felt a call to become a sister when I grew up. When I finished eighth grade, Sister Henrita secured a scholarship for me to attend Good Counsel Academy. Father Scheid found a home in Mankato where I could stay, attend the Academy, and work after school and weekends for my room and board." However Adeline became very homesick and missed her family very much. From Christmas on, she stayed at home, and rode a school bus into Mankato each day. In her junior year, the family moved to Mankato.

Following graduation in 1941, Adeline told her family of her desire to become a School Sister of Notre Dame. This pleased everyone except her father, so she decided to postpone her entrance into the convent, and instead worked as a secretary for an attorney in Mankato. After World War II broke out, the family moved to New Ulm where her father worked in a defense plant, and Adeline did office work in a credit union.

In 1944, Adeline applied for admission to SSND. Her father could not accept this decision, and could not understand why she wanted to give up everything, including a good job, to become a sister. It was at this time that Adeline began to understand how isolated he sometimes felt because he was of a different religion. She wrote, "So many things that meant so much to us he couldn't share."

Adeline loved her days in the candidature, because a desire she had since third grade was being fulfilled. During the 1945-46 school year, as a second year candidate, she taught 48 fourth graders at St. Francis de Sales School, St. Paul, which she found to be very challenging. At her reception into the Novitiate, she was given the name Louis Marie, with Blessed (now Saint) Louis Mary de Montfort as her patron. With her strong devotion to Mary, having a patron with this same devotion was very significant for Sister Louis Marie. How fitting that her death occurred one day before Louis de Montfort's feastday.

After her profession in 1947, Sister Louis Marie taught primary and intermediate grades at a succession of schools: St. Bernard, Cologne; St. Stanislaus, St. Paul; St. Peter, New Haven, Iowa; St. Mary, Madelia; and St. Peter, Hokah. In 1955, she was transferred to Colton, Washington, traveling by train to Spokane and bus to Colton. The next day, she received a call to come back east and go to St. Michael, Minnesota. So she returned, arriving on a Sunday afternoon. She met the principal on Monday and started school on Tuesday. This was her introduction to high school business education classes. She stayed in St. Michael until 1960, and then continued teaching business courses at Don Bosco, Gilbertville, Iowa (1960-64); St. Agnes, St. Paul (1964-68) and Good Counsel Academy (1968-77). She earned her bachelor's degree from Creighton (1955) and a Masters in Business Administration from Notre Dame (1966). Sister Louis Marie was an energetic teacher, and her former students were very appreciative of the education they received in her classes; several made it a point to visit with her at Good Counsel in her retirement years. In addition to teaching a variety of courses at Good Counsel Academy, she also served as secretary for the Provincial Chapter of Affairs, and had several other responsibilities.

In 1977, Sister Louis Marie moved to St. Cloud, where she taught half time at Cathedral High School and participated in the Adsum program, giving her time for personal and spiritual development. She was very grateful for this time.

Sister Louis Marie began a third ministry in 1983 when she became school secretary at St. Matthew School, St. Paul. For the next fourteen years, she performed the many and varied tasks of that position. From 1983 until 1986, she worked part-time in school and part-time with her sister in Hastings, taking care of their mother. In 1994, she described her work in a letter to Madison Lake students, "We have 192 children in grades K-7. The children come frequently for a bandage or to give or get a hug, to give me a piece of their birthday cake, or just to say "Hi.' They keep me young at heart."

In 1997, Sister Louis Marie retired at Good Counsel, where she helped out in the Learning Center library for several years. She enjoyed her years of retirement, especially the time she had for prayer. A music lover, she often carried the Liturgy's final song with her throughout the day. She wrote in 1999, "I look forward to the future with confidence, and trust that the Lord who has guided me and protected me through life's journey so far, will continue to be with me. . . . I will know the fullness of joy when I see him face to face." May Sister Louis Marie, who walked by faith throughout her 87 years, now be enjoying that fullness of joy, accompanied by never-ending songs of praise.

Sister Mary Kay Ash