An annual mission trip to Nicaragua this month would have been the ninth for Sister Agnes Soenneker of Clare’s Well retreat center south of Annandale. Instead it will be dedicated to the memory of the 50-year Franciscan sister, who died suddenly of a heart attack on Friday, Dec. 28. Soenneker, 68, collapsed and died Friday afternoon as she was starting to make dinner at Clare’s Well. A funeral Mass was scheduled at 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, at St. Francis Convent in Little Falls after visitation Tuesday, Jan. 1, at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Annandale. Nicaragua Known as "Aggie" or "Sister Aggie," Soenneker was preparing for the Sunday, Jan. 13, trip to northeastern Nicaragua with a group of 20 from Central Minnesota including Sister Carol Schmit of Clare’s Well and four others from Annandale. "It is still on," Schmit said. "We’re hoping to make it a tribute to her and her enthusiasm. "Just because my heart is broken doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it," said the classmate and colleague of a half-century, "and we will." Soenneker had made the two-week mission trip each year since 2000, helping conduct medical clinics and being "the torch bearer for everything," Schmit said. The two entered the novitiate at St. Francis Convent together in 1957 and celebrated their golden anniversary in August. They and six other classmates formed a special bond and made a retreat in northern Wisconsin in July in preparation for the anniversary. Schmit said she looks back on it as a gift and a special time. The two co-founded Clare’s Well, a 40-acre women’s spirituality farm, in June 1988 and continued as its directors. Sister Jan Killian joined them 10 years later. Soenneker was born and raised on a farm at Sauk Centre. "She was very much of the land," said Schmit, who is also from a farm background. It was heavy work but they knew how to run Clare’s Well because of their farm training as children. Sister Aggie’s main job at the farm was as a massage therapist but she also worked in its large garden and cared for the houseplants – believed to promote a feeling of well being – in its wellness center. Her first career was at St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Little Falls where she became a registered nurse, worked as a floor nurse and as an instructor in the nursing school. She later earned her bachelors degree at Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Community building "She spent nine years in Venezuela doing basic community building," Schmit said, from about 1974 to 1983. That involved seeing to the needs of the people, both sacramentally and helping secure lighting and water for them. Whether it was Venezuela or Clare’s Well, Soenneker was a maverick, Schmit said. "She kept pushing to see how things could be done better – not like ‘We’re finished with this,’ but ‘Where does this path lead us now?’" Sister Aggie was an active member of the St. Ignatius Church liturgy committee, which trains lectors and plans the details of special ceremonies such as the Christmas observance. "Her contribution to the St. Ignatius community especially in liturgy preparation and execution was really significant," Schmit said.
