Hospital Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis

Sister M. Agnesa Grömping

✝ Friday, August 18th 2023

Jesus, Mary and Joseph pray for us!

After a long suffering, the good and merciful God redeemed our Sister M. Agnesa from her difficult suffering on August 18, 2023. Sister M. Agnesa was born on August 22, 1941. She entered our religious community on August 15, 1963. She made her first profession on May 3, 1966.

Sister M. Agnesa was born as the sixth and youngest child into the Grömping family in Rhade near Dorsten. She hardly knew her father. He was missing in action during the war. After school, Agnes learned housekeeping and joined our Sisters in the kitchen of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Dorsten.

In 1963, she followed her older Sister M. Urbanis by joining our Congregation. Her life was marked by many physical and also psychological illnesses, which she endured with great patience. We often saw Sister M. Agnesa at the gate in Seppenrade, where she welcomed us with her calm and serene manner. In the convent Maria Hilf in Telgte she played the organ for ten years. In the last six years Sister M. Agnesa was a quiet resident in the St. Heriburg House. Within the limits of her health, she participated in community life. She enjoyed playing parlor games and making the most beautiful things for her fellow sisters.

Sister M. Agnesa was a great devotee of St. Joseph and also of the Mother of God. She always confided in them and in her Son Jesus when life became difficult for her and illness threatened to overtake her again in her life activities. In the last weeks Sister M. Agnesa was bedridden. Her earthly life was slowly dying out. In the presence of her fellow Sisters, she gave it back into the hands of God at noon on August 18, 2023, four days before her 84th birthday and three days after her 60th day of entrance. Now she is reunited with her Sister M. Urbanis and all her loved ones who preceded her.

We remember her in prayer and in the celebration of the Eucharist and remain attached to her as Sisters.

We gratefully bid farewell to Sister M. Agnesa.  On Tuesday, August 22, 2023 we celebrate the resurrection Mass in the Motherhouse Church at 2:00 p.m.  In prayer we accompany her to her final resting place in the Sisters' Cemetery.