Irene Catherine was born on January 31, 1904, in Belleville, Illinois, to Adolph and Catherine (Hasenstab) Noser, the third of ten children-the tenth child was still-born. There were four boys and five girls. 

She was born with both hands and one foot deformed. When she was six months old, her parents consulted a doctor at Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. The doctor told them that he could straighten the leg, but it would take three surgeries, each about six months apart, and even then she would probably never be able to walk without crutches. Her parents had great confidence in the power of prayer, and decided to go ahead with it. “I heard my mother tell relatives in later years that I never cried and there was always a smile on my face— a favor which our Heavenly Father granted them, no doubt, to make the cross easier to bear. I feel I owe it to the prayers of my parents and especially those of my saintly mother that eventually I was able to walk with an extension on my right shoe and a steel brace that reached far above the knee.” Still she ran and jumped with the rest of the children in the neighborhood. By the time she was fourteen, her leg had become stronger and she was able to walk at times without the brace.

Because her mother treated her as a normal child, Irene believed herself to be like everyone else and as capable. She attended St. Mary’s Grade School, where she was in the choir and took part in all school activities. After graduation, she went to St. Luke’s High School for ninth grade and a complete commercial course. Ordinarily this took several years, but because of the influenza epidemic, the students were permitted to work ahead and to finish the course as soon as possible. Irene finished the course in nine months and graduated in June, 1919. Then, in order to help her parents support their large family, she accepted a secretarial job in the office of the stove factory where her father worked as superintendent.

Irene’s love for the poor began in childhood. One of her earliest memories was that of bringing food to a poor family early in the morning. “Mother would rise very early in the morning to bake biscuits or cornbread. While it was still in the oven, she would quietly call me— then the oldest girl— help me to dress, bundle me warmly in coat and hood, and have me carry the pan of hot food to a poor family about a block away, she herself standing on the front porch until I returned. Invariably she would say, 'do not tell anyone, not even papa..., what we do for the poor only Jesus should know.'" This phrase became a watchword for her throughout her life.

From an early age, Irene wanted to be a “praying sister.” She asked admission to the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who had been her teachers, but she was refused because of her deformity. When the Mother General of the Franciscan Sisters came to Belleville, she spoke with her also, but met with the same refusal. One day the Notre Dame Sisters asked her if she had heard of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri. Although she had to reply “No,” the title itself seemed to her to be a response to her desire to be a “praying sister.” Her father arranged for her to visit Clyde in March, 1920. In the course of the interview, Mother Mary John told Irene that she had something she would like for her to type. Before Irene could even complete one of the large certificates for membership in the Association of Perpetual Adoration, Mother Mary John told her that she was accepted.

In obedience to Rev. Mother Mary John, Irene entered at Clyde on April 21, 1920, the Solemnity of St. Joseph She was clothed with the habit four months later, on August 28, 1920, the last to receive it from the hands of Mother Mary John Irene made first profession on February 4, 1922, five days after her eighteenth birthday, and received the name of Sr. Mary Tharsilla. She made final profession on February 15, 1927.

Sr. M. Tharsilla worked for about thirteen years in the Correspondence Department. She also helped Sr. M. Carmelita with the Caritas work, which had been begun by Fr. Lukas Etlin to assist poor priests, seminarians, and convents of sisters in Europe. When our foundation was made in Tucson in 1935, Mother M. Dolorosa thought the climate might prove beneficial and sent Sister there for six months. These six months lengthened into seventeen years. During those years, she worked in the Altar Bread Department, and as bookkeeper, secretary, and economa. She served as subprioress there for two terms.

In 1953, Sr. M. Tharsilla was called back to Clyde to complete the term of Sr. M. Aurelia Rudholzner+ as Councilor General and to help with the secretarial work. During this term, she was asked to oversee the renovation of the proposed aspirancy in San Benito, California. She would always remember the disappointment of having to give up this small foundation with its beautiful mountain foothill site.

Sr. M. Tharsilla returned to Tucson to serve two terms as prioress from 1956-1962. Following this, she was prioress in Clyde for one term, from 1962-1965. Over the years she also spent time in Mundelein, Kansas City, and San Diego.

When in 1973, our community was asked to undertake the work and responsibility of founding the American branch of AIM, Aide a l’lmplantation Monastique, later known as the Alliance for International Monasticism, Sr. M. Tharsilla was asked to be its executive director. The office was established at our St. Louis monastery. This position enabled Sr. M. Tharsilla to be a missionary in imitation of her brother, Rev. Adolph Noser, S.V.D., who was a missionary bishop in New Guinea. .Sister sent books, medicines, and religious articles all over the world with the help of a few volunteers, until poor health forced her to discontinue this work in 1988.

Sr. M. Tharsilla  became a member of the health care center in St. Louis where she was still able to get around on her “Amigo” electric scooter. She managed to find her way to chapel and community events until the last two or three years, when increasing confusion and weakness became more and more confining. Sr. M. Tharsilla died peacefully at 5:30 am on Pentecost Sunday, June 11, 2000, during the General Assembly at Clyde. Funeral arrangements were postponed until the sisters’ return. 

The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in the St. Louis monastery chapel on June 27. Rev Bernard Horzen, O.S.B., a member of the A I M. board and a very close friend of Sr. M. Tharsilla, was presider and homilist at the funeral Mass. Burial was in Mt. Calvary cemetery at Clyde the following day. Sister truly did live her life “purely for Jesus” and along the way touched thousands of lives the world over.