In Memoriam: Sister Helen Heher, OSB
September 4, 1944 ─ December 23, 2025
Our sister, Helen, has concluded her
earthly journey and now lives in God.
We celebrate her joyous homecoming,
although without Helen among us, our world
is a little less colorful, a little less imaginative.
Helen lived life to the absolute fullest,
a lover of all that surrounded her.
She delighted in family and community,
friends and guests, young and old.
Equally at home in the material world and
the world of Spirit, Helen faithfully sought
life’s wholeness and lived intensely every day.
Her expressive communication
and freedom of spirit were barely dimmed by
the confines of her physical body.
May Helen continue to bless us with the
gift of creative stamina in our search for Love.
We ask this in your name, O God.
Amen
Sister Helen Heher, OSB, 81, died Tuesday, December 23, 2025, at Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Erie. She was born September 4, 1944, to Joan (Fleckenstein) and Herbert Heher in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Helen, the oldest of six children, was baptized at St. Joseph Church in Oil City where she grew up and attended Catholic schools staffed by the Erie Benedictines. She came to Erie in 1962 after high school graduation to enter the Benedictine Sisters and made her final monastic profession on September 4, 1971.
Sister Helen taught grade school at St. Michael Parish in Fryburg, Mount Calvary Parish and St. Mary Parish in Erie, and St. Gregory Parish in North East. In 1972 she became the activities coordinator and bookkeeper at John XXIII Home in Hermitage. In 1977 Sister Helen returned to Erie where she worked at the monastery in food services and then became an administrative assistant at St. Benedict Academy where she remained until 1981. In 1984 she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Therapeutic Recreation from Villa Maria College.
From 1976 until 1985 Sister Helen was the Director of Glinodo Summer Camp and in 1986 she transitioned to Recreation Program Director at Glinodo Conference Center where she stayed until 1992, in all spending nearly sixteen years creatively bringing children and adults into closer relationships with spirituality and nature.
Sister Helen left Glinodo to become Wellness Coordinator for the Benedictine community, her ministry until she retired in 2020. For more than twenty-five years she offered regular and creative opportunities geared toward holistic well-being for her sisters, continually increasing her own knowledge by regularly participating in workshops and seminars on holistic health and self-development. During this time, she also served young people who were sentenced to community service by the Harborcreek Juvenile Court. Many of them grew to love her and the creative programs and projects she planned for them to fulfill their service.
Sister Helen’s artistic arrangements for special events and her creativity in liturgy inspired sisters and guests for decades. Throughout her sixty years in community Sister Helen regularly astounded and awed everyone with her creative way of looking at the world.
Sister Helen was preceded in death by her parents Joan and Herbert, and her brother-in-law Pete Wolf. She is survived by her siblings Herb (Ange), Marie Wolf, Bill (Mary Jo), Elizabeth Myers (Jeff), and Stephanie, many nieces and nephews, and her Benedictine Community.
Services will take place at Mount Saint Benedict Monastery: Monday, December 29, Visitation from 2:00-5:00 p.m. and a Service of Memories at 7:00 p.m.; Tuesday, December 30, Visitation from 2:00-5:00 p.m. and a Mass of Christian Burial at 5:30 p.m. Interment will take place at a later date. Brugger Funeral Homes and Crematory, Pine Avenue Branch, 845 East 38th Street, is handling arrangements.
Memorials may be made to the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, 6101 East Lake Road, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16511, click here.
