The journey of life began for Sister M.Florence Monner in Spring Brook, Iowa when she was born April 13, 1906. Her parents were Catherine Meyer and Frank Monner. They called their daughter Agnes Susanna. While Agnes was still in early childhood her parents moved to a farm near Colton, South Dakota, where she grew up with two brothers and four sisters. She used to enjoy gathering wild honeysuckle and other flowers that grew in the fields. Her love of flowers was expressed in convent days by care of beds near the lawns when opportunity permitted. Agnes attended the country school and parish church about a mile from her home.
When she had finished grammar school, she enrolled in a high school taught by the Sisters of the Presentation. During this contact with religious, she decided that she would like to be a Sister, too, but her mother objected, saying she was too young. So Agnes remained at home for a year, doing housework; or at threshing time going to help a neighbor; or again when there was a new baby in a family and the mother needed assistance, she would go.
The following year she entered a Junior college, also under the direction of the Presentation Sisters. Seeking to learn her vocation she changed to Winona, Minnesota, for her second year. Here she came in contact with Franciscan Sisters. After a few weeks, she wrote to her aunt, a Notre Dame religious, of her hope of becoming a contemplative Sister. Her aunt was familiar with the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at Clyde through the magazine, "Tabernacle & Purgatory," and gave Agnes the address. Preliminaries being completed, she entered the postulancy at Clyde on February 1, 1927, and the novitiate the following September.
Novice Agnes was admitted to first vows on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8, 1928, and received the name Sister Mary Florence. After three years in the novitiate, she was sent to Mundelein on May 2, 1931. While there, she took a course in dietetics at the Waukeegan hospital. On March 14, 1933 she returned to Clyde to prepare for perpetual vows, which she made on September 8, 1933.
During her early years of training, Sister M. Florence worked in the altar bread department, but after perpetual vows she often served in the kitchen whether at Mundelein, Clyde, St. Mary’s infirmary, Kansas City, or St. Louis. At other times she was employed in the altar bread department of the house. Summer sessions in nutrition and the culinary arts were offered several years in St. Louis and Sr. M. Florence attended these to be enabled to provide healthy and wholesome meals to the Sisters.
As a member of the Mundelein Community on January 4, 1953 Sister M. Florence received consecration of a virgin when the first ceremony was held there. After some years, she returned to Kansas City, and in 1965 went to San Diego. She was recalled from San Diego to St. Louis in September 1971, where she served, as cook.
After two years she went back to Kansas City in May 1973. She was transferred to the San Diego infirmary June 13, 1983. On July 9, 1985 she required emergency surgery for an obstruction, and a week later had pneumonia. When she was able to leave the hospital, she was taken to the St. Louis Health Care Center and was making excellent progress, so much so, that her death on November 5, 1985 was totally unexpected. Funeral services were held in St. Louis on November 7, and the remains taken to Clyde for burial in Mount Calvary Cemetery the following day.
During the wake Sisters who had known Sr. M.Florence mentioned her faithful observance of the Rule, her quiet sense of humor, her love of prayer and adoration. They saw her as a well-balanced person, faithful to duties, unselfish, kind, motivated by love of God as she had learned in the novitiate. Writing of her novitiate days. she said. ”I made my novitiate under a very saintly and capable Novice Mistress, Sister M. Carmelita Quinn. Her instructions gave us a firm foundation in our religious life as Benedictine Eucharistic adorers. These instructions combined with conferences and retreats through the years have supplied all necessary spiritual knowledge and help and recent Bible studies take us deeper into Scripture."
When the year 1981 was devoted to a community study of the Eucharist, Sister M. Florence was enthusiastic about her new understanding, and exclaimed, "It's so much bigger than we think! I see it now as total response to the Lord!" Sister M. Florence also encountered the Lord in charismatic meetings, and always wanted to be with the community at the Divine Office. When in the infirmary she assisted from the chapel balcony. Now we hope her praises are joined with those of the heavenly choirs in their unceasing "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord!"