Sister Victorine was born in South Minneapolis, Minn. She worked in health care, primarily as a pharmacist, but also as a registered nurse after completing her degree at the College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth in 1952--18 years after she began college.

S. Victorine became a pharmacist almost by accident. The pharmacy at St. Cloud Hospital, a windowless room, turned out to be a good assignment for her. She had often been sick and, in fact, had to quit college during her junior year in the nursing program at the College of Saint Benedict, despite great talent and interest, because of her illness.

Sent to work at the pharmacy at St. Cloud Hospital to wash bottles, she ended up taking over for the pharmacist when he was assigned elsewhere. She learned what she needed to on the job, and soon all the doctors in the hospital thought she was a certified pharmacist. She spent two years at St. Benedict’s Hospital in Ogden, Utah, where she also worked as a pharmacist.

It was only in 1967, during a visit to the Mayo Clinic, that she was properly diagnosed as having a rare genetic disorder that made her sick from sun exposure. When she learned what was wrong, she thought about her great love of outdoor activities, rolling up her sleeves to be the main rower in boats the Sisters took out on the Mississippi River. “No wonder I was wacky all the time,” she said.

S. Victorine currently lives at the Saint Scholastica Convent in St. Cloud, Minn. She says of her 75 years as a Benedictine Sister, “I’ve had a lot of fun in my life.”