Marian Kemper, OSB

/in /by

Marian (Leon) Kemper. OSB

Saint Benedict’s Monastery

St. Joseph, Minn.

April 11, 1930 – November 17, 2017

The Eucharist of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 22, 2017, at the Sacred Heart Chapel, Saint Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, Minn., for Sister Marian (Leon)  Kemper. S. Marian died, age 87, on November 17, 2017, at Saint Scholastica Convent, St. Cloud, Minn. Burial will be in the monastery cemetery. Friends may call at Saint Scholastica Convent on Tuesday, November 21, from 1-4:30 p.m., or for a Vigil Prayer Service at 7 p.m. at Saint Benedict’s Monastery. Visitation continues at 9 a.m. on November 22 until the time of the funeral.

Marian Kemper was born April 11, 1930, to Herman and Elizabeth (Winters) Kemper in Sauk Centre, Minn. She entered Saint Benedict’s Monastery on September 12, 1956; was received into the novitiate as Sister Leon on June 18, 1957; made first profession on July 11, 1958, and perpetual monastic profession on July 11, 1961. In 1968, she chose to change to her baptismal name and was thereafter known as Sister Marian.

A graduate of the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minn., S. Marian received a B.A. degree in social science with a minor in elementary education. She earned an M.S.A. in administration at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and also attended St. Cloud State University and Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wis. 

S. Marian served in three different areas of ministry.  She worked in the office of the bursar of the College of Saint Benedict and in the monastery Business Office. Secondly, she served as an educator, teaching middle and upper grades in Pierz, Minn., and Bluffton, Minn., and serving as a teaching principal. At St. Mary’s Grade School in St. Cloud, and at St. Anastasia’s, Hutchinson, Minn., she served as principal. S. Marian also worked with the Right to Read Program in the State of Minnesota. Parish ministry was the third area in which S. Marian served. She was parish administrator, and later pastoral minister, at St. Catherine’s Parish, Redwood Falls, Minn.; she worked in pastoral ministry at St. John’s Church in Belle Plaine, Minn., and as pastoral administrator at St. Joseph’s Church in Lamberton, Minn. Following retirement, she moved to Saint Scholastica Convent where she undertook a ministry of prayer and community living.

S. Marian is survived by her Benedictine community, her sister, Jeanette Orth. and by nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents and sister, Eileen Jennissan. 

Please direct memorial gifts to the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict Retirement Fund.