German-born Sacred Hearts Sister was a teacher and artist
Sacred Hearts Sister Gertrude Maria Schroeder, a teacher and artist who entered the religious life in Hawaii and who also served in Germany, the country of her birth, died in Honolulu on March 11. She was 91. This year would have marked the 70th anniversary of her first vows.
Reflecting 10 years ago on her 60th anniversary of vows, Sister Gertrude Maria said she owed her religious vocation to “God’s grace and the example and prayers of my mother” who was “imbued with a deep and lively faith and unshaken trust in God.”
Sister Gertrude Maria was born Gertrude Erika on July 12, 1923, in Rostock, Germany, the only daughter of Karl Rudolph Schroeder and Helena Kayser. She first arrived in the United States at age 6, returned to Germany, then came back to Hawaii in 1936. At age 13, she enrolled at Sacred Hearts Convent in Nuuanu and graduated from Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki in 1941.
She entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on Aug. 22, 1942, and made her first profession on Sept. 3, 1944.
“During my adolescent years as a student and boarder with the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts, I was greatly impressed by the example of their lives consecrated to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and centered in eucharistic adoration as perpetual prayer for the church and humanity,” Sister Gertrude wrote on her 60th anniversary.
“Gradually I realized that God wanted me to serve him in this way too,” she said.
Sister Gertrude received her bachelor of science degree in education from University of Dayton in 1959 and a bachelor of arts degree in art from the University of Hawaii in 1977. She also earned a master’s in secondary education from the University of Hawaii in 1984.
As a young religious, then known as Sister Benigna, she taught second grade at Sacred Hearts Convent. From 1945 to 1953, she taught grades six, seven, eight and nine at Sacred Hearts Academy. A gifted artist, Sister Gertrude also taught art at both schools.
From 1984 to 1991, Sister Gertrude moved to Essen, Germany, to be a member of her congregation’s formation community there. In Germany she reacquainted herself with relatives in Eastern Germany, and kept in contact with them for the rest of her life.
When she returned to Hawaii, she served as a eucharistic minister for the homebound elderly of St. Patrick Parish in Kaimuki. Her beautiful singing voice enhanced the community’s liturgical services. She had a great love for St. Damien and expressed this love in her numerous works of art.
“I am filled with deep gratitude for the priceless gift of my religious vocation to perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as a Sister of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in whose loving service I have vowed to live and die,” she said.
Sister Gertrude Maria’s funeral was March 21 at Malia o ka Malu Convent where she lived.
