Let me admit up front to taking more than a few minutes to decide whether to name this post “The Sisters” or “The sisters.”

Because this is the story of two sisters who chose to live their lives as Sisters.

The past month or so, I’ve dug in on Farmer Gary‘s side of the family. Specifically, after his godmother Stella’s funeral, her sister Marie gave us a packet of information Stella’s late husband, Arch, had collected over the decades. Arch gathered quite a stack of research, so it seemed only right for me to take the time to cross-reference his findings with our family tree on Ancestry.com.

“Gary – did you know your great-grandfather had two sisters who were Sisters?”

He did.

Great-grandpa Paul Joseph Wigger had 13 siblings. Their dad was born in Switzerland, their mom in Germany.

Sidebar: If you’ve met my husband, you were no doubt charmed by his Dutchy accent. Where did it come from? He jokes that his “leash” (aka the family farm) hardly extends outside of the county lines. But his generation is the first in his family who grew up speaking English at home.

He remembers stories from his Dad and Mom that the teacher at their parents’ one-room schoolhouse taught in German, but included a single class with instructions in English-as-a-second-language.

When the census taker dropped by the Wigger farm in 1870, the accent was so thick, he wrote down their surname as “Vicker.”

And little Agatha was listed as “Agata.” (end of sidebar)

It would take until 1885 before the Wigger family was complete. Sadly, three of the siblings were apparently stillborn or passed soon after birth (born before the state of Indiana required birth and death certificates). A fourth child, John Maurice, died at just three years old. And little Mary, born in 1869, didn’t make it to her tenth year.

The two youngest children were both girls. Another Mary, born in 1883. And little Anna, born in 1885.

These sisters became Sisters.

The Sisters of Saint Benedict were fairly new in the community. Four Catholic Sisters answered a call in 1867 for teachers who spoke German. Their fascinating history tells the story of determined growth as they built what is now called the Monastery Immaculate Conception and made it their home in 1886.

Mary joined the Sisters of Saint Benedict first, after helping out on the family farm throughout her teens. She was 19 when she entered the convent in 1902. She took the name of Sister Vincentia, which means “triumphant” in Latin. Sister Vincentia professed her Temporary Vows in 1905 and Perpetual Vows on August 5, 1912.

Two years later, Anna left home for religious life and followed a similar schedule as her sister. In 1905, she received her habit and veil and took the name Sister Athanasia, which is Greek for “eternal life.” She professed her Perpetual Vows on August 4, 1914.

Both Sisters taught in schools, at the grade-school level, throughout southern Indiana. Sister Athanasia’s tenure stretched from 1906 to 1935, when she retired from the classroom due to health concerns. She kept busy though, helping with domestic chores at the convent.

Sister Athanasia was just 64 when “the angel of death” visited her on August 29, 1949, according to her obituary in the Ferdinand News. The cause of death stated on her death certificate from a Louisville hospital was kidney failure due to “tuberculosis of the kidney.”

I may poke fun at the quaint “angel of death” quote from one newspaper, but at least they got the deceased’s name right.

The Dubois County Daily Herald ran this front-page correction in early September:

Sister Vincentia was just one year short of celebrating her diamond jubilee (60 years) in the Order of Saint Benedict when she passed away 15 years after her sister. After 79 years of robust health, a gallstone operation rendered Sister Vincentia paralyzed in 1962. She died while hospitalized in nearby Huntingburg on Sunday, August 23, 1964.

The Wigger sisters devoted their lives to ora et labora (prayer and work), following the teachings of Saint Benedict.

As I wandered through a trove of quotes from Saint Benedict this afternoon, this one in particular stood out as wonderfully freeing.

May the Wigger sisters who were Sisters rest in peace, as we remember their devotion to their students, their Sisters, and their God.

Please subscribe here, and we’ll send you an email notice with each new story: