A funeral Mass for Sister Ida Robertine Berresheim was celebrated Dec. 18 at Nazareth Living Center Chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister Ida died Dec. 12 at Nazareth Living Center. She was 96 years old and a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet for 77 years.
Elizabeth Eugenia Berresheim was born on Jan. 28, 1928, the second of four girls to Robert and Ida (Loida) Berresheim.
When a priest at St. Luke’s asked if she thought she had a religious vocation, she told him she had thought about it but didn’t think she would qualify. He told her to go straight home and tell her parents she was going to the convent. She said her parents were “shocked,” but as it turned out they were also very pleased with her life decision.
Elizabeth Eugenia entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet on Sept. 15, 1946. She received the habit and name Sister Ida Robertine (in honor of her parents) on March 19, 1947. She questioned why they added “ine” to her father’s name, but she learned to live with it. She made her final profession on Aug. 15, 1952.
Sister Ida’s ministry began with teaching elementary school in St. Louis, including St. Mary Magdalen, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Philip Neri. She also taught in Denver; Sedalia, Missouri; and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Given that she was working on her degree in English, she was then assigned to secondary schools including Little Flower in Chicago and St. Thomas Aquinas in Florissant, where in 1962 she received the “Most Memorable Teacher” Award. She completed her high school teaching career at St. Anthony High School in south St. Louis.
Sister Ida requested to be sent to the missions in another country but instead was assigned to Fontbonne College as the registrar. She later served the provincialate and generalate. Eventually, she was assigned as the mission coordinator.
She often visited Peru and tried to learn as much as she could about the work there. After she had completed her ministry in leadership, she went to Peru and worked in pastoral ministry for seven years in the 1980s.
In 1990, she was elected superior general of the St. Joseph Generalate, a role she served in for four years. She then went to El Paso, Texas, where she ministered to immigrants and was an advocate until 2011.
Sister Ida returned to St. Louis in 2011 as an assistant mission coordinator at the sisters’ Congregational Center and later volunteered with Fiat and Holy Family communities. In 2024, she moved to Nazareth Living Center, where she lived out a ministry of prayer and presence.
Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.
