Sister Ruth Margaret Karabensh

Sister Ruth Margaret Karabensh, 95, a member of Annunciation Monastery, Bismarck, entered eternal life early on the morning of November 1, having been hospitalized at St. Alexius the afternoon before.

The Mass of Christian Burial is Thursday, November 7, at 4:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Annunciation Monastery.

Visitation will begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, November 6, at Annunciation Monastery and the vigil service with Evening Prayer at 7:00 p.m. in the monastery chapel. 

Sister Ruth Margaret (previously known as Sister Charles) was born September 30, 1929, in Milwaukee, WI, the seventh of ten children of Charles and Catherine (Rothschiller) Karabensh. Following the family’s move to rural Mandan, ND, where she went to school and then worked at a Mandan bank, she entered Annunciation Monastery as a postulant in 1949, made her monastic profession July 11, 1951, and celebrated her 73rd year of monastic profession.

A beautifully articulate person, Sister Ruth Margaret enjoyed people and the friends she made while working with Priory High and Mary College students, staff and patients at St. Alexius and Garrison Memorial Hospitals, and her sisters in parish convents at St. Mary’s, Bismarck, St. Joseph’s, Mandan, and San Raphael Mission, Tucson, AZ. She faithfully served the sisters, staff, and guests at the monastery. Sister Ruth Margaret enjoyed her family and shared their visits with the sisters as well. Her friendly and outgoing personality added warmth to the hospitality she extended in her competent service at the priory and monastery switchboard for over 40 years.

With a special affinity for angels, she trusted in God’s abiding care. Sister Ruth Margaret’s ministry of prayer, expressed in the many letters and notes she wrote, arose out of her awareness that, “Though I was not educated, I always felt I could pray.” Sister Ruth Margaret was a “home-maker.” She wanted to contribute to community life in whatever way she could. In addition to the many housekeeping, laundry, food service, and dishwashing tasks that were hers, she lovingly tended to plants and arranged flowers and table centerpieces that brought beauty and inspired conversation. At the height of the COVID pandemic, she sounded the chime at Evening Prayer, corresponding with the number of COVID deaths as reported in North Dakota that day.

Sister Ruth Margaret is survived by her sister, Caroline Maher, Bloomington, MN, nieces, nephews, and the Sisters of Annunciation Monastery. Her beloved sister and brother-in-law, Marian and Art Zueger, Mandan, ND, died earlier this year. She also was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters Elsie Larson, Charlotte, Catherine Schmidt, and Ann Haider, and her brothers Carl, Richard, and Jack Karabensh.

Memorials may be made to Annunciation Monastery.