Benedictine Sister Michon (Mary Ann) Lanners, 89, died Oct. 29 at St. Cloud Hospital, St. Cloud. The Eucharist of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 8, at the Sacred Heart Chapel, St. Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, with burial in the monastery cemetery. Friends may call at St. Scholastica Convent on Thursday, Nov. 7, for a prayer service at 3 p.m. followed by visitation until 4:15 p.m., or for a vigil prayer service at 7 p.m. at St. Benedict’s Monastery. Visitation continues at 9 a.m. until the time of the funeral Nov. 8.
The youngest of five children of Joseph and Mary Ann (Kack) Lanners, Mary Ann was born Aug.1, 1935, in Sisseton, South Dakota. She attended Canby Elementary School in Canby, Minnesota, and St. Benedict’s High School, St. Joseph. She entered St. Benedict’s Monastery Aug. 28, 1949, was received into the novitiate as Sister Michon on June 7, 1953, made first monastic profession July 11, 1954, and perpetual monastic profession July 11, 1957. She celebrated her golden jubilee in 2004 and her 60th jubilee in 2014.
Sister Michon earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with minors in English and philosophy at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph. From St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, she earned a master’s degree in educational administration for elementary grades. She also attended the College of St. Theresa in Winona, Minnesota, and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
She served in elementary education, teaching in Long Prairie, Sauk Rapids, and at St. Anthony’s School and St. Augustine’s in St. Cloud. She also served as principal at St. Augustine’s and in Breckenridge. Sister Michon served in the education department at the College of Saint Benedict, where she trained student teachers. At Saint Benedict’s Monastery, she was motherhouse coordinator of community living and later worked as a pastoral minister at St. Anne Parish in Minneapolis. She served at St. Therese Home in Golden Valley, Minnesota, as director of volunteers, auxiliary liaison and in pastoral care. She returned to Saint Benedict’s Monastery in 2014 and worked at the Spirituality Center, where she also assisted with the School of Benedictine Spirituality.
Sister Michon is survived by her Benedictine community and nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Joseph, at birth, her brother and sister-in-law, Edmund (Phyllis), and her sisters and brothers-in-law, Dolores (Mathias) Antony and Lucille (Donald) Antony.
Please direct memorial gifts to the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict Outreach Ministries.