Josephine Voelker was born in Fulda, Germany in 1861. At the time of her entrance into the convent at Clyde she was living at Louisville, Kentucky. She was invested June 9, 1878 and professed as Sister M. Hildegard on June 10, 1879. She was among the first group to make perpetual vows on September 29, 1884.

Sister M. Hildegard played the organ for liturgy, taught, and arranged flowers. She became ill with tuberculosis in 1887.  In order to improve her health she was sent to Colorado for the summer but did not find relief, returning to Clyde on August 31. While some days were better than others, she remained largely incapacitated until her death, at the age of twenty-eight, on April 17, 1889.