Sr. M. Innocent OSB was born Mary Rosina Koller at Pearl Lake, Minnesota (later called Marty, MN) located approximately seventy miles NW of Minneapolis. Her folk's, Martin and Anna Jaeger Koller, were farmers. The area was settled by Germans.
Rosina was second of three children and the family's only daughter (one additional brother had died as an infant), when her mother died of consumption at age 25 years. Rosina never remembered her. She and her two brothers were sent to Wisconsin to live with their dad Martin Koller's parents and young sister Tillie while he trekked to North Dakota to make a new start.
After marrying an Austrian born woman named Maria Halzshak, and starting a farm in the Hebron area on the high west Missouri River plains, he send for his children. Rosina and her two brothers finished growing up in western North Dakota.
In 1907, Rosina entered the Benedictine Order at Sacred Heart Convent at Yankton and she made her vows in 1911. The bishop assigned her the name Sr. Mary Innocent. As she recalled years later to this author, in the year of her vows, her class received male saint names, names by which they would be known for the rest of their lives. Some name assignments were uncommon saint names, cumbersome and, at first glance, difficult to pronounce. She felt especially lucky to receive by chance the name Innocent, a name used by several popes. Her good friend just ahead of her in line, by chance, became Sr. Mary Theophilus (sic).
For sixty-one years, Sr. Innocent gave service as a primary teacher beginning in 1911 in Illinois at Rock Island; in South Dakota at Webster, Hoven, White Lake, Aberdeen, Dimrock, Epiphany, Yankton, and Chamberlain; in North Dakota she taught at Richardton and in Nebraska at Menominee, Lincoln, Albion and Constance. Her last teaching assignment was at St. Joseph's in Pueblo, CO. She taught 21 years in Nebraska and 22 years in South Dakota.
She is buried at the Benedictine Cemetery, Sacred Heart Convent, adjacent to Mount Marty College at Yankton, SD. written by Gregory Dorr
Sr. M. Innocent OSB was born Mary Rosina Koller at Pearl Lake, Minnesota (later called Marty, MN) located approximately seventy miles NW of Minneapolis. Her folk's, Martin and Anna Jaeger Koller, were farmers. The area was settled by Germans.
Rosina was second of three children and the family's only daughter (one additional brother had died as an infant), when her mother died of consumption at age 25 years. Rosina never remembered her. She and her two brothers were sent to Wisconsin to live with their dad Martin Koller's parents and young sister Tillie while he trekked to North Dakota to make a new start.
After marrying an Austrian born woman named Maria Halzshak, and starting a farm in the Hebron area on the high west Missouri River plains, he send for his children. Rosina and her two brothers finished growing up in western North Dakota.
In 1907, Rosina entered the Benedictine Order at Sacred Heart Convent at Yankton and she made her vows in 1911. The bishop assigned her the name Sr. Mary Innocent. As she recalled years later to this author, in the year of her vows, her class received male saint names, names by which they would be known for the rest of their lives. Some name assignments were uncommon saint names, cumbersome and, at first glance, difficult to pronounce. She felt especially lucky to receive by chance the name Innocent, a name used by several popes. Her good friend just ahead of her in line, by chance, became Sr. Mary Theophilus (sic).
For sixty-one years, Sr. Innocent gave service as a primary teacher beginning in 1911 in Illinois at Rock Island; in South Dakota at Webster, Hoven, White Lake, Aberdeen, Dimrock, Epiphany, Yankton, and Chamberlain; in North Dakota she taught at Richardton and in Nebraska at Menominee, Lincoln, Albion and Constance. Her last teaching assignment was at St. Joseph's in Pueblo, CO. She taught 21 years in Nebraska and 22 years in South Dakota.
She is buried at the Benedictine Cemetery, Sacred Heart Convent, adjacent to Mount Marty College at Yankton, SD. written by Gregory Dorr
Bio by: Gregory Dorr
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