Hildegard Kohlleppel was born in Westphalia, Germany on Jan. 15, 1902. As the family lived near a Benedictine Abbey, and often took part in services there, nearly all of the children were given the names of Benedictine saints: Hildegard (the one here concerned), Scholastica (later to become our Sister M. Victoria), Mechtilde, Gertrude, Walburga and Benedict.

Hildegard was one of a large group of postulants brought over by Sister M. Bernard Willman on one of her vocation trips to Central Europe, entering at Clyde on Aug. 27, 1922. She was invested on Aug. 25, 1923 and professed as Sister M. Edelburga on Aug. 30, 1924. She made perpetual vows on Sept. 1, 1929 and was one of the large group receiving Consecration of Virgins on November 16, 1952.

Sister had received a good education and was highly intellectual; besides her native German she knew French, Latin and Italian, and one or two other languages, in addition to English which she picked up quickly after her arrival at Clyde. She also had a good voice and loved to sing in choir. She had imbibed much of the Benedictine spirit from the Abbey near her home, so that she had a deep appreciation of the Divine Office and Gregorian Chant.

At Clyde, Sister answered German letters, helped with the Caritas work under Father Lukas, and for many years edited the German edition of "Tabernacle and Purgatory" in close collaboration with Sister M. DeSales who was editor of the English edition. She spent some time at our Tucson priory between 1957 and 1958, Sister was the first secretary for the Cause of Father Lukas Etlin and rendered very helpful assistance to the vice-postulator by her comprehensive knowledge of the process of beatification, as well as her personal acquaintance and association with Father Lukas.

(One of her sisters became a Benedictine missionary in Brazil. Several of her brothers also came over to America and worked at the convent for a time, before settling on farms in the vicinity of Conception. Her older brother, Karl, had a vegetable garden at San Antonio, Texas, near the Mexican border.)

Sister M. Edelburga suffered for years from a severe spinal ailment, which confined her to bed for long periods of time, but she always worked diligently at her mental work, propped up in bed. She was also afflicted with a progressive liver disease, to which she finally succumbed on May 21, 1965 at the age of sixty-three.