Sister Dolores (Nathan) Super

Sister Dolores died on Monday 28 September 2026 at Saint Scholastica Convent in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She was 95, a few weeks short of her 96th birthday, and had been a member of Saint Benedict's Monastery for 80 years. No cause of death was made public.

The monastery announced her death on 30 September, saying she had entered eternal life and adding: Well done, good and faithful servant. Her obituary was carried by Benson Funeral Home, the St. Cloud Times, The Central Minnesota Catholic and WJON.

A prayer service and visitation were arranged at Saint Scholastica Convent on 13 October 2026, followed by a vigil prayer service at the monastery that evening. Her Eucharist of Christian Burial was set for 10.30am on 14 October 2026 in Sacred Heart Chapel at Saint Benedict's Monastery, with burial of her cremated remains in the monastery cemetery, and the services were to be livestreamed. She was survived by her Benedictine community and her nieces and nephews; her parents and all ten of her brothers and sisters had died before her. Memorial gifts were directed to the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict Outreach Ministries.

Dolores Super was born on 21 October 1930 in Little Falls, Minnesota, to Andrew and Elizabeth (Wielinski) Super. She was the tenth child in a family of eleven, with six brothers, Sylvester, Raymond, Leonard, Aloysius, John and Theodore, and four sisters, Helen, Anne, Mary and Rita.

She went to Our Lady of Lourdes Grade School in Little Falls and spent ninth and tenth grades at St. Francis High School there before finishing at Saint Benedict's High School in St. Joseph. She entered Saint Benedict's Monastery on 26 August 1946, a few weeks before her 16th birthday, was received into the novitiate on 16 June 1948, made her first monastic profession on 11 July 1949 and made her perpetual monastic profession on 11 July 1952. Her obituaries give her name as Sister Dolores (Nathan) Super, the name in brackets being the religious name she was known by in her early years as a sister.

Sister Dolores studied music at the College of Saint Benedict, graduating in 1954 with a bachelor's degree in music and minors in English and philosophy. At Indiana University in Bloomington she earned a master's degree in music education, with minors in organ and music history, and she went on to a doctorate in music education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She also studied at St. Cloud State University, the University of Colorado, St. Mary of the Woods in Indiana, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and completed an internship in college administration at Rockhurst College in Kansas City.

Her early ministry was as an organist and music educator at St. Mary's Cathedral in St. Cloud and St. Mary's Parish in Breckenridge. In 1960 she joined the music department of the College of Saint Benedict, teaching there until 1977 and chairing the department from 1962. From 1978 she held a series of administrative posts at the college: director of instructional support and development, director of general and continuing education, assistant to the vice president for academic affairs and, from 1986 to 1994, academic dean.

She also gave years of service to health care in central Minnesota. She chaired the board of trustees of St. Cloud Hospital from 1984 to 1994 and served on the boards of CentraCare and Queen of Peace Hospital in New Prague.

At Saint Benedict's Monastery she was community program coordinator, responsible for spiritual ministries, arts and heritage, and for Studium, a programme that welcomed scholars in residence to study and write at the monastery. She directed Studium from 1994 to 2008, and throughout her many ministries she played the organ for the monastery's liturgies.

Sister Dolores spent her entire adult life as a member of Saint Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph. She celebrated her golden jubilee of profession on 11 July 1999, her 60th anniversary in 2009 and her 75th anniversary on 11 July 2024. In 2021 she moved to Saint Scholastica Convent in St. Cloud, where she spent her final years.

Over more than three decades at the College of Saint Benedict, Sister Dolores helped shape the music department in its formative years and then the college's academic life as dean. Through her leadership of the St. Cloud Hospital board she also left a mark on health care in central Minnesota, and through Studium she opened the monastery to visiting scholars for 14 years. To her community she was remembered too as the organist whose playing accompanied its prayer for decades.