Helen Bernice Aubuchon was born on the Feast of St. Hildegard, Sept. 17th, in 1919 to Cleveland Aubuchon and his wife Helen Kelly Aubuchon in Philadelphia, PA. Bernice, as she was called, was the second oldest child of five children. Her older brother, Alex died of influenza as an infant. She had two sisters, Miriam and Joan, and a younger brother, Joan’s twin, Jerome.

The family moved around quite a bit because of Mr. Aubuchon’s work as an industrial investigator for the railroad. From Philadelphia the family moved to St. Louis where Bernice attended Nativity Parochial School. During Bernice’s childhood the family also lived in Little Rock, AR, Austin, Texas, and Kansas City, MO where she graduated from Westport High School in 1938. After high school Bernice did housework to help bring in income for the family.

“Prior to entering the convent I remember vividly the suffering and hardship of the Great Depression,” Bernice wrote, “One place I worked for $2.00 a week, and another place I earned $6.00 a week. Our family of six paid $10.00 a month rent for the house. We were on relief at the time, being allowed to get $10.00 worth of food a week. I worked an hour after school, five hours a week for $6.00 a month.”

The novel “Quo Vadis” by Henry K. Sienkiewicz inspired Bernice to consider religious life. She learned about our Congregation from the Pink Sisters in St. Louis, a community also dedicated to the adoration of Christ in the Eucharist. About entering Clyde, Bernice later wrote, “How I finally came to enter at Clyde is so astounding and thrilling. Only God could, as it were, ‘pull off such a stunt’ with such aplomb. When I woke up that morning, I didn’t know that by the evening I would be saying goodbye to my family and be on a train for Clyde.”

Sr. Callista from Clyde was in St. Louis for business and stopped by the Aubuchon house to ask Bernice if she would like to enter; she had applied a few months before. Bernice said yes, and then Sr. Callista told her she could accompany her back that evening. Bernice was not quite ready for the suddenness of the invitation but Sr. Callista told her she had a postulant’s outfit all ready for her and then they could receive the religious discount for the train trip to Clyde. “It all happened so suddenly I didn’t have time to bring anything!” she would recount in later years. “The convent had to supply everything!”

Bernice entered June 7, 1940 and was invested in the habit Feb. 8, 1941. On the Feast of St. Scholastica, February 10, 1942, she made profession and received the name Sr. Mary Blanche after St. Blanche of Castile, the mother of King Louis IX, who became St. Louis.

Sr. Blanche worked for almost 30 years in the printery in Clyde. She faithfully ran the folder for our booklets and our magazine Spirit & Life. She attended classes in offset presswork at Kansas State College at Pittsburg, KS. Sister also worked in the bakery and the altar bread department. She worked as a younger sister in the infirmary at Clyde caring for Sisters Irmengard, Bernadette, Angela, and Innocent. Many years later Sr. Blanche volunteered to serve our infirm sisters in our health care center in our monastery in St. Louis. Besides Clyde and St. Louis, Sister lived and worked in our monastery in Kansas City and lived in our Tucson monastery three separate times for a total of sixteen years. During her time in Tucson Sister took cooking classes with Mr. Araneta at his Mexican restaurant. She was able to share her culinary skills with community, to the delight of her sisters.

In May of 1984 Sr. Blanche was able to fulfill a dream of making a trip to the Soviet Union. She wrote in her journal, “I chose the U.S.S.R. solely because I love the people and their vast land. This was augmented by having read their literature: Tolstoy, Chekov, Dostoyevsky, and poets like Puskin and Yevtushenko....I studied the language and knew the Cyrillic alphabet, which enhanced it all.”

Sr. Blanche was able to visit Russia, Georgia, Siberia and Samarkand, Uzbekistan—one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. In a letter to the Congregation, Sr. Blanche wrote, “I was struck by the preoccupation of the State in preserving icons, churches and monasteries, restoring their former beauty.” No matter where Sr. Blanche lived or traveled, she kept her eyes open for birds. She was an avid bird-watcher with over 120 species on her check list.

Sister was an ardent student with an adventurous spirit. Knowing that Pope Paul VI wanted Benedictine monastic men and women to enter into dialogue with the religious traditions of the East, Sr. Blanche met often with a Vipassana meditation group to learn about that spiritual discipline. She remained in contact with them for many years.

In her later years Sr. Blanche developed diabetes and had recurring health problems. Several days before she died our sisters kept vigil with Sister. She died at 9:15 in the morning with Sr. Priscilla by her side.