Sister Luitgard Kussmann

Sr. Luitgard Kussmann, Obituary, May 4, 2014

Sister Maria Luitgard Kussmann, OSB, nun of the Abbey of St. Walburga, died in the early morning of Friday, May 2, 2014, at the Little Sisters of the Poor Mullen Home for the Aged in Denver, where she had resided since 2008. She was in the 99th year of her life, and the 62nd of her monastic profession.

Elisabeth Kussmann was born in Untergrombach, Baden, Germany, on August 12, 1915, the eldest child and only daughter of Josef Kussmann, a railroad official, and Bertha Fetzner Kussmann.

In 1932, at sixteen, she entered the Missionary Benedictine Sisters at Tützing, Germany, as an aspirant. She attended school and was trained in tailoring. She was sent to the Philippine Islands in 1940, and spent several years there, teaching sewing and handicrafts, and working various Filipino, American, and German families.

The disorders of postwar conditions led Elsa to seek to immigrate to the United States. She obtained a visa with the help of the Good Shepherd Sisters in the Philippines, and came to California in late 1949. She lived in their girls' school in San Francisco, helping out in home economics classes and working on her English.

In 1950 she happened upon an issue of the National Catholic Register which featured a story about the recent election of Mother Augustina Weihermüller, superior of the little Convent of St. Walburga outside of Boulder, Colorado, as the new Abbess of the Abtei St. Walburg in Eichstätt, Germany. This was the first Elsa had heard of the Boulder community, and she wrote immediately to request admission. The new superior, Mother Gertrud Braun, and the other five Sisters welcomed her warmly, and she helped wherever needed – at household tasks, sewing, and running the Sisters' summer camp for children. On February 10, 1953, Elsa made her monastic profession, receiving the name Maria Luitgard.

Sr. Luitgard was responsible for the Abbey Retreat House for many years, making numerous devoted friends among our regular retreatants. She was also our main seamstress, making and mending countless monastic habits. After our Abbey relocated to Virginia Dale in 1997, Sr. Luitgard continued to exercise her prodigious green thumb, beautifying the surroundings with colorful flower beds outdoors and thriving houseplants indoors.

Beside her monastic community, Sr. Luitgard is survived by a beloved nephew, Michael Kussmann, of Mannheim, and other relatives in Germany.

Sister Luitgard will be commemorated with a Rosary at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, in the Abbey Church in Virginia Dale. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated there the following day, Wednesday May 7, at 10 a.m., with interment to follow the Abbey cemetery. Arrangements are being handled by Goes Funeral Care of Fort Collins, Colorado.