Sister Eileen

Sister Eileen Dietz, OSB, of Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, died at St. Vincent's Care Center in Bismarck on April 1, 2003. A wake service will be held at the monastery chapel on Thursday, April 3, at 7:00 p.m. MT, with visitation all afternoon. The funeral Mass will be at 10:00 a.m., Friday, April 4. She will be buried in the Sacred Heart Monastery cemetery. Father David Wolf, of Assumption Abbey will preside at the Eucharist, with Sister Marie Hunkler, Prioress, presiding at the monastic funeral rites.

Sister Eileen was the youngest of ten children born on December 3, 1914, to Mathias and Helen (Wagner) Dietz who farmed south of Sentinel Butte. She was baptized as Agnes Rose. A childhood disease resulted in a serious hearing impairment. After graduating from eighth grade, she worked for several years, including two years at St. John's Hospital in Helena, Montana. She entered Sacred Heart Convent in Minot in 1944 and made her first monastic profession in 1946. She was assigned to the kitchen and laundry at St. Luke's Hospital in Crosby and Sacred Heart Convent in Minot until 1955, then to the laundry at St. Vincent's Care Center in Bismarck until 1967. When the new monastery was built at Richardton in 1967, her skills as laundress were needed and appreciated there for the next three decades. In addition, through her planning and physical labor, several flowerbeds began enhancing the monastery grounds with a variety of blooms and bushes. Her flower bouquets not only decorated the chapel but also won many ribbons at local festivals. Scrabble, pinochle, and solitaire were her favorite winter pastimes. At night when fresh laundry was folded, flowers watered, and card games won, she would retire to the chapel for late night vigils. Due to failing health, she entered St. Vincent's Care Center in February, 2001.

Sr. Eileen is survived by one brother Edmund and wife Ethel of Sentinel Butte, sister-in-law Frances Dietz of Sentinel Butte, numerous nephews and nieces, and the sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery.

She was preceded in death by her parents, sisters Anna Mary Dietz, Catherine Barthel, Elizabeth Lardy, Mary Kyle, and Agatha Nistler, and brothers Joseph, Aloysius, and Herman.