Florence Marie was born on March 9, 1916, to Matthias and Susan (Jacoby) Finken in Defiance, IA, the fourth of nine children. At the time of Florence’s birth, her father owned the hardware store in town. Later the family moved to a farm in the country. She went to school at St. Paul’s in Defiance, which was taught by the Benedictine Sisters of Atchison, Kansas, and continued there until her graduation from high school. She wrote, “I was very much attracted to these sisters, women of character, truly dedicated, and I longed to be one of them.” She enjoyed spelling, English, writing and literature, as well as baseball, acting, and dancing.

When Florence was in her senior year, her family moved to Earling, Iowa. She stayed with an uncle in Defiance to finish school, and she helped in his restaurant and with domestic duties. At this time her brother, Sylvan, entered the Benedictines in Atchison. After graduation, her teachers would have liked to take Florence with them, but Florence was not attracted to their teaching apostolate. She had been reading our magazine Tabernacle and Purgatory and,  “Jesu Hostia was tugging at my heart strings.” Florence went to Sioux City, Iowa, where her older brother and his wife were happy for her help with their small children. From there, she began to correspond with the sisters in Clyde. “The longing to be a Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration was so great and so overwhelming that nothing else mattered. I could think of nothing else morning, noon, and night.” Preparations were made over the months and she was ready to go. Her parents prevailed upon her to postpone entrance until after the corn had been harvested in the fall of 1935.

The days of the postulancy and novitiate passed quickly for Florence. She made her first monastic profession on August 30, 1937, receiving the name “Augustine.” Already as a postulant, she had begun working in the correspondence department, learning the crediting and then helping Sr. M. Wereburga with the Benefactors’ File. In 1952, she was asked to be postulant director, having already helped the novice director as assistant for five years. That same year she was asked to succeed Sr. M. Hildelita as novice director, as Sister’s health was failing. There were forty-six in the novitiate at that time.

Sr. M. Augustine was one of the pioneers for our San Diego monastery.. Her work there was bookkeeping, making of first communion veils, and public relations. She was instrumental in helping the oblates to get started in San Diego.

Returning to Clyde in 1960, she helped with the mail stand. She was elected to the General Council at the 1962 Chapter, was director of the junior sisters, handled the Mass intentions for the Congregation, and took care of transportation for the sisters.

During this time she was given the task of initiating the work of the transition of the Breviary from the Latin into English. Our own printery did the printing for this.

In 1966, Sr. M. Augustine was transferred to Saint Louis. Then, after the General Chapter in 1968, she again went to San Diego, where she served as portress. Later on she was in charge of the Altar Bread Department there. She returned to Clyde in 1974, where she served as portress and in the Altar Bread Department until her final transfer to the Health Care Center in St. Louis.

During her many years of illness, Sr. Augustine maintained her sense of humor and never lost her wit. When asked, “Sister, all you all right?” she replied, “No, I’m half left!” One sister told the story, “One day I was standing with her looking out a window and I told her she was a saint, and she replied, ‘You’ve got that right!” She delighted to see others smile and laugh. She was known for her sense of peacefulness and gratitude, and for her thoughtful acts of kindness that brought happiness to others.

Sr. Augustine took her leave quietly at 11:45 pm on October 14, 2000. The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in the St. Louis Monastery chapel on October 18, with burial in Mt. Calvary Cemetery at Clyde the following day.