May 3, 1941 – July 18, 2023
Lover of family and friends, fishing and hiking, gardening and everything about the great outdoors, this faithful, life-long servant was born on May 3, 1941, in the small town of Delavan, Minnesota, and died peacefully on July 18, 2023, at Carondelet Village in St. Paul. She was the fifth child, and only daughter, of Henry and Maude (Welch) Lubitz.
In 1959, she graduated from Delavan High School and then spent two years at the College of Saint Theresa, in Winona Minnesota. In 1961, Monica moved to St. Louis, where she earned a nursing degree from Saint Mary’s School of Practical Nursing. It was there that she met and was taught by the nursing community of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary. In 1962, she briefly joined their order, but needed to return home in 1965 to care for her ailing father.
Monica’s nursing career spanned more than 30 years, serving at Emmanuel-St. Joseph Hospital in Mankato, Minnesota; Fairview Southdale Hospital in Bloomington, Minnesota; Minneapolis Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis; and Hennepin County Medical Center in Richfield, Minnesota.
In 1994, through the connection of a friend and Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, she became interested in the mission and ways of the CSJ community. In 1998, Monica was received into the novitiate, left hospital pediatric nursing, and opened an infant-toddler daycare, which she ran out of her Richfield home for the next nine years. By August of 2003, Sister Monica was fully received into our community, where she began a new ministry as a medical advocate for the sisters, providing 24/7 on-call medical support to sisters as they had need. Sister Monica ardently and lovingly served in this work until retirement.
Sister Monica is preceded in death by her parents and brothers Michael John and Howard Lubitz. She is survived by brothers Thomas and Donald Lubitz; many nieces and nephews; grand and great-grandnieces and nephews; friends; colleagues; and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and Consociates.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, July 28, at 11:00 a.m., in Our Lady of the Presentation Chapel, 1884 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, with burial following at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights. Memorials are preferred to the Sisters of St. Joseph Ministries Foundation.
Dear Monica, rest in love and peace.