Sister Mariterese (Theresa) Woida was the third daughter and the sixth of seven children born at home in Minnesota’s Douglas County to Theresia (Klimek) and August Woida on January 9, 1943. She grew up on a farm in Ottertail County and went to Sacred Heart Grade School in Urbank, Minn., which was taught by the Benedictine sisters. In eighth grade, she attended a country school since her father had retired from farming and the family moved. She had three brothers and three sisters, and two of her brothers are now deceased. She also has many nieces and nephews.

In eighth grade, S. Mariterese participated in a spelling contest and went to the county bee. She also participated in a diocesan catechetical contest and won a scholarship that paid part of her tuition to St. Benedict’s High School in St. Joseph, Minn.

Two of S. Mariterese’s aunts were religious sisters. Her mother’s sister was a nurse in the Franciscan order in Little Falls, Minn., and her father’s sister was a Benedictine who joined the monastery in St. Joseph but transferred to Annunciation Monastery in Bismarck, N.D., when it became independent; she had been teaching math at a high school in North Dakota.

A year after high school, S. Mariterese returned to St. Joseph to join the Benedictine sisters. She taught and was principal in elementary schools in Minnesota. She eventually got a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn., and taught briefly in the education department of the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph.

S. Mariterese served as the planning facilitator under the leadership of Sister Mary Reuter, who was prioress of Saint Benedict’s Monastery from 1989–1995. During this time, plans were made to renovate and update the main building and St. Walburg’s Hall. S. Mariterese also was the monastery archivist for several years and currently works part-time in the monastery’s secretarial office.

S. Mariterese enjoys the outdoors and reading. She reads the daily paper, completes the puzzles, and appreciates the selection of books in the monastery library, especially biographies. Her friends would say she knows how to ask important questions and has the gift of entertaining others with childhood memories of songs and games.

Profile written by Thomasette Scheeler, OSB, and Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB