Sister Consuela Arens, 1914-1998
Born August 12, 1914, Forest Hills, Kentucky
Entered St. Walburg Monastery, August 12, 1932
First Profession August 25, 1934
Died January 31, 1998
Sr. Consuela was the fourteenth of fifteen children, five of whom died in early childhood. She attended Holy Cross School for twelve years, graduating from the high in 1932. On her eighteenth birthday she entered St. Walburg Monastery.
Sr. Consuela taught at St. Henry School in both the elementary school and high school until 1942 when tuberculosis kept her in the infirmary for nearly five years. Weakened lungs would have hampered a less gallant person, but Sr. Consuela carried a full schedule for many years at St. Joseph Hospital in Colorado, Holy Cross High School, St. Henry High School and St. James School, Brooksville. At St. James she was principal and sole teacher!
In 1974 she became bookkeeper for St. Walburg Monastery and in this capacity she served until the week of her death, leaving information on her desk about how to get a certain task completed.
Sr. Consuela’s interests went beyond numbers. She was an artist with needle and thread, an avid reader of Newsweek magazine, a card player, a collector of jokes and solver of jigsaw and crossword puzzles.