Mary Helena Goeden was born January 24, 1896, in Menominee, Nebraska, to Helena Lammers and Charles Goeden, both originally from Germany. She was the seventh of ten children, five boys and five girls. She grew up on a large farm, family-owned, and attended St. Boniface parish church. During the eight years of grammar school she had male teachers. After finishing the eighth grade, she went for one year to St. Joseph's Academy at Clyde.

Responding to an attraction to the life, she entered the postulancy on June 20, 1912. Sister Gertrude Mayer was her postulant and novice mistress. As a postulant she milked cows and set hand type. Later she went to the correspondence department. Her reception of the Benedictine habit took place on January 18, 1913, and a year later, January 24, 1914, on her eighteenth birthday, she pronounced her first vows and received the name "Boniface" - to do good. Throughout her life she strove to live up to this ideal her favorite brother also bore the name Boniface.

At the age of twenty, in 1916, she began teaching at Conception Junction with Sister M. Patricia Kelly as companion, and was quarantined there during the small pox epidemic at the convent. On July 29, 1918, she was sent to the new community in Chewelah, Washington. She pronounced her final vows there on September 8, 1919.

In Chewelah, Sister M. Boniface taught school one year. She returned to Clyde in 1920, where she undertook the work of record keeper in the correspondence department. On February 25, 1924 she was placed in charge of the postulants and had seventeen young women to instruct, including the second large group from Germany. On May 21, 1927 she went back to the correspondence department, this time as supervisor. She was a tireless worker, well organized, responsible, kind and loyal. Subscriptions to "Tabernacle and Purgatorv at that time had reached a total of 37,000 English and 20,000 German, and involved much work. She carried on big circularizing project several times a year to raise funds for the new foundations in Mundelein and Tucson.

In early 1939, Sister M. Boniface was transferred to Tucson, and on October 5, 1940 became a member of the Mundelein community. There she served as portress and procurator, and also did much ordinary sewing. She remained in Mundelein until November 18, 1953, returning to Clyde then as Assistant Prioress to Sr. M. Thiadildis Krause (Edith Marie). When a member of the community in Mundelein, she was consecrated a virgin, on January 4, 1953.

She served as procuratrix at Clyde from 1956 - 1962. In 1963 she became a member of the San Diego community, remaining there until 1973, acting again as procuratrix and librarian. When she came to St. Louis in 1973, she continued this work. In February 1978, she was freed from heavier labors and spent her time on a stamp collection.

In 1982, the General Chapter decided to renovate the second floor of St. Louis monastery for additional care of the elderly Sisters in the Congregation. During this renovation Sister M. Boniface took up residence in Kansas City. She experienced new problems with cataracts, and in November in a letter to those in St. Louis, she said: "With poor hearing, bad eyes, and poor legs, I am trying to come closer to my Savior, and let Him make of me what in every one of our houses. Every one is good to me. No matter what happens God is good to us, and many blessings come every day through His mercy. Let us be what He has called us to be.”

On March 11, 1984, back again in St. Louis for nearly a year, she had a stroke and her left side was paralyzed. She became a bed and wheel chair patient. As the months passed and a series of small strokes, she entered more and more into the solitude of deafness and helplessness. The end came Sunday morning, December 16, 1984, very quietly.

She is remembered for her faith and fidelity to adoration, and any duty. Her years in the Health Center were marked by kindness, interest in the community and others, and her time was spent in prayer and on her hobby. May she remember us all in her heavenly dwelling place.

An incident which happened on her return from Kansas City to St. Louis in 1983 might vouch for the power of her faith and prayer. In stopping at a restroom, Sister forgot her handbag with quite a sum of money in it. When she realized this, she was much distressed but the driver insisted it was not possible to go back - being on a divided highway and having gone quite a distance. She entrusted her problem to God in prayer, confident that He would see that it was recovered. Two days later the Prioress General had occasion to go to Clyde by the same route. She stopped and inquired at the service station and the handbag was given to her with this information: A lady had found it, and the money inside. She had taken it with the intention of using the money, but knowing it belonged to a religious sister, her conscience gave her no rest and she decided to take it back to the service station. So Sister M. Boniface’s faith was rewarded with the return of the handbag and contents.