+Sister Chrysostom Koppes, OSB

Sister Chrysostom Koppes, a Benedictine Sister of Mount St. Scholastica, died February 1, 2001, at Mount St. Scholastica. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Mount St. Scholastica Monastery, Monday, February 5, at 10:30 a.m. Visitation will begin Sunday, February 4, in St. Lucy's Chapel at 12:30 p.m., and will close with a vigil service at 7:00 p.m. Burial will be in the monastic cemetery.

Viola Magdalene, one of three children of John Valentine and Katherine Treinen Koppes, was born April 27, 1910, in Marysville, KS, and received her elementary education at Barnes Grade School, Barnes, KS. Sister Chrysostom attended Mount St. Scholastica Academy and graduated in 1927. After working several years in Barnes as a bookkeeper, clerk, elementary school teacher and piano instructor, she joined the Benedictine Sisters in 1932. She made her monastic profession in 1934.

Sister Chrysostom earned a bachelor's degree in piano from Mount St. Scholastica College, and also held a bachelor's degree in cello, and a master's in piano from the Kansas City Conservatory of Music.

For more than 60 years Sister Chrysostom taught music at Mount St. Scholastica Academy, Mount St. Scholastica College, Benedictine College, and The Mount Conservatory of Music. She also made stage sets, composed music, did woodcarving, paintings, crafts, produced Fine Arts Festivals, and with Father Anselm Llewellyn, St. Benedict's Abbey, and Helen Volk, both members of the drama department of St. Benedict's College, started what later became the Atchison Community Theater.

Sr. Chrysostom was preceded in death by a brother. She is survived by one sister, Alice Crisler of Ferndale, Michigan.

Let us remember her gratefully in our prayers.