Sister Laurentia Koehler, ASC

January 1, 2025

“Go down to the Potter’s House,”
Says the Lord.
So to the potter’s house I went.”
Jeremiah 18:1

As Sunday Vespers were ending on December 29, 2024, Sister Laurentia Koehler responded to the call of Master Potter. She was 89 years old. In the summer of 2024, she celebrated 70 years as a professed member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ.

Sister Laurentia was born in Spearville, KS, on March 21, 1935, the first child of Lawrence and Anna (Temaat) Koehler. She was baptized Juliana Catherine the next day at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in the small Catholic community of Windhorst. The family moved to Danville, KS, and grew to include three more girls and a boy.

Twenty years after her profession of vows, Sr. Laurentia wrote a vocational narrative. “For some reason I always kind of wanted to be a sister. Without a doubt, having three aunts in this community and an uncle who was a Redemptorist influenced me in my younger, energetic and idealistic years. Mother and Dad, from my earliest memories, always put their faith, their Church, ahead of everything else. I see all this as God’s way of pointing me to the religious way of life and to this particular community of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. I remember… praying to know what God wanted me to do.”

Sister Laurentia’s parents insisted that she attend a Catholic high school, so she enrolled at Sacred Heart Academy, where she battled homesickness and played the trombone in the all-girls band. Time at the academy strengthened her desire to be an Adorer, so she entered as an aspirant in her senior year.

Two months after graduation, she entered the novitiate on July 1, 1953. She pronounced her first vows a year later and final vows on July 1, 1959.

Most of Sr. Laurentia’s ministry was in the field of education. Like many Adorers at that time, she was assigned to teach before completing college. All Saints and Margaret Mary in Wichita, and St Patrick in Plains, KS, were on her resume before graduation from Sacred Heart College (now Newman University) in 1963. She went on to serve Kansas parish schools in Marienthal, Andale, Ellinwood, Pilsen, and Grinnell before being called to community service. Serving as provincial councilor from 1971-74, she gained “…a province wide concern and viewpoint that I didn’t have before.” Before returning to education, she also served as Local Coordinator at the Motherhouse.

By that time, she had completed a master’s degree in Principalship from Catherine Spalding College. That served Sr. Laurentia well when she was appointed principal of St Francis of Assisi School in Wichita. Reflecting on her time there she wrote, “As a religious and as an educator, mine is the challenge to grow to an even greater awareness of God’s presence in others and to respond to His call as it unfolds daily.” During her tenure at St. Francis, she was seriously injured in an auto accident. She expressed her belief that she was able to return to work while still in a body brace and sustained no permanent damage because of the heartfelt prayers of the students for her healing.

In 1990, Sr. Laurentia found herself on the other side of the desk studying gerontology at Wichita State University. This was preparation to take on the role of administrator of Villa Maria, a long-term care facility in Mulvane, KS. Six years later she was back in Oklahoma, as principal of St. John Nepomuk School in Yukon. She finished her ministry in education at Holy Trinity in Okarche, teaching part-time and caring for her elderly mother.

Returning to the Wichita Center in 2012, Sr. Laurentia served as Pastoral Care Coordinator for Caritas Center. During her decade of ministry, she developed integrated services for the sisters in long-term care. She was particularly attentive to accompanying sisters as they were dying.

Through the years, Sr. Laurentia had an alter ego: the clown “Troubles.” A hobby that began with school Halloween parties took on a deeper meaning and eventually she completed a course in clown ministry to enhance her skill. “Clowning is an art. Whenever I put on the clown outfit, I feel like I have a mission.” Sister Laurentia enjoyed tending to people and the earth. She continued to cultivate flowers in the raised bed gardens even when she had to use a walker.

Preceding Sr. Laurentia in death were her parents, Lawrence and Anna and her sisters Dolores Gruenbacher Clarke and Alice Stejskal. She is survived by her brother, Richard Koehler, and sister, Cleona Oltermann, nieces and nephews, and her ASC community members.

Sister Laurentia’s body will be welcomed home for a wake at the Wichita Center at 11 a.m. on January 3. Reverend Tom Welk, C. PP. S, chaplain, will preside and Rev. Alan Hunter, a cousin, will be homilist at the Mass of Christian Burial at 1:30 p.m. that afternoon. Burial will follow in the convent cemetery.

Sister Laurentia, you wrote in your autobiography, “The piece of clay Jesus began forming back in March 1935 is still in process…But someday it will be a finished and beautiful piece of work ready for the Lord’s display.” That day has come.

Adorers of the Blood of Christ
United Sates Region