Sister Judeen M. Seeberger

Sister Judeen Seeberger of Mother of God Monastery, Watertown, SD, died on Friday, February 21, 2025 at Estelline Care Center, at the age of 98. Funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, at Mother of God Monastery in Watertown.  Burial will be held at Mother of God Cemetery.  This service will be livestreamed and recorded via our website.

S. Judeen was born on July 6, 1926 in Glen Ullin, North Dakota, to Nick and Teresa (Duratschek) Seeberger and given the name Claudia Maria. She was the oldest daughter and middle child of the seven children.

Judeen spent the first 15 years of life on a farm in Glen Ullin and attended Sacred Heart School.  Like most farming communities, the depression and WWII, hit Glen Ullin hard. In1942, the family decided to head west, landing in several towns - Lodi and Richmond, CA, Vancouver and finally Yakima WA, where the family settled for good. The children worked to help make ends meet so they could attend Catholic school - picking produce, working in canneries and packing plants, and clerking at stores.

After graduating from St. Joseph’s Academy in Yakima, Judeen entered Sacred Heart Convent in August of 1945. In 1947 she professed 1st vows as a Benedictine sister and made final profession on June 24, 1950. She became a founding member of Mother of God Monastery on June 15, 1961.

S. Judeen was destined to be a teacher, and held teaching certificates from N. Dakota, S. Dakota, California, Colorado, and Nebraska. She received her bachelors in education from Mount Marty and a masters from Holy Names College in Spokane, WA.        

After teaching elementary aged kids for 25 years, she “switched gears” to enter parish ministry as director of religious education at Holy Family parish in Yakima. There, she created a robust program that heralded 98 volunteers and three sessions of classes to meet the catechetical needs of this vibrant parish.

After 20 years at Holy Family, she decided once again to ”switch gears” to help a struggling, low income parish on the other side of the city. Judeen spent “ten happy years doing what I liked to do best, beginning programs and spearheading events that hadn’t existed before.”

The last years of S. Judeen’s time in Yakima, she spent helping to take care of her mother. Upon her mother’s passing, Judeen returned to S. Dakota, with a position at St. Agatha parish in Howard.

Throughout all her years of teaching and parish ministry, Judeen enjoyed playing music, working with choirs, or bringing it into to the classroom. She said, “it added a little spice to my life and peppered some bland areas.”

S. Judeen appreciated opportunities that put “spice” in life; attending conferences across the nation or bringing the gospel alive in the classroom. She worked hard for people, saying, “You can be successful working half days - and it doesn’t matter which half - the first 12 hours or the second 12 hours.”

Arrangements by Crawford-Osthus Funeral Chapel www.crawfordosthus.com Watertown and Hayti

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