Mary Hilgert was born in Luxemburg on June 10, 1860. When nine years old she came with her family to the United States, to take up residence at Maryville, MO. Mary was received into the two-year-old Clyde community on Dec.28, 1877 by Mother M. Anselma Felber; was invested with the religious habit on June 9, 1878 and made her first vows on her 19th birthday, June 10, 1879, receiving as her patron the great Benedictine mystic, St. Mechtilde. Perpetual vows were made on Sept. 29, 1884, and virginal consecration on Nov. 16, 1952. When Sister celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1929 she was the third member of the community to reach this milestone.

Sister was an excellent teacher and for many years taught at the various schools in the surrounding countryside, going to and from school on horseback. She also taught at the convent Academy for some years. Among her pupils was Richard Felix, later a monk of Conception Abbey and founder and Abbot of the first offshoot of that Abbey at Benet Lake, Wisconsin. Msgr. Edgar Schmiedler, O.S.B. of St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, Kans., for years director of the Family Life Bureau, was a cousin of hers.

After the Sisters withdrew from teaching, Sr. M. Mechtilde was assigned various other tasks. Among them was the keeping of records of the building construction then in progress. Her excellent memory was invaluable to the community, particularly in compiling the chronicles of the first twenty- five years, when not many records were kept.

Sister was a serious-minded person, deeply religious and dedicated to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, maintaining that this was the primary purpose of the foundation made from Maria Rickenbach. A spirit of obedience and childlike submission was one of her outstanding characteristics. and her hidden sacrificial life was an edification to all.

Sister enjoyed good health most of her life and always took an active part in community affairs. In August, 1950 she suffered a fractured hip in a fall, and a second fracture in October of the same year rendered her bedfast the remainder of her life. During this prolonged period of illness her spirit of prayer manifested itself with increasing intensity. She longed to die and be with God. Nevertheless she endured her physical suffering and discomfort patiently, and was faithful to her daily hour of adoration, being careful to time it with the praying of Vespers by the community. The rosary was her constant companion and her invocations to the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, and Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament were almost continuous,

Sister died on July 29, 1954, just seven weeks after her 94th birthday and the 75th anniversary of her religious profession. She breathed her last as the Sisters at her bedside were fervently repeating the invocation: "0 Sacrament most holy, 0 Sacrament Divine, All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine." As she was the last of the members received into the community by its foundress, Mother M .Anselma Felber, her passing in a way severed the last link with the motherhouse at Maria Rickenbach. As one of the first pioneers, Sister had seen the small shoot transplanted from Europe to America grow into a sturdy tree, extending its roots into four dioceses, (Mundelein, Tucson, Kansas City and San Diego) and had herself contributed much to its growth. And surely we may count on her continued help as one of our heavenly patrons, now adoring Christ in His unveiled vision.