Christine Massman, CSJ
October 7, 1925 - January 8, 2025
Dedicated, caring, determined
On December 7, 1925, John and Anna (Weidinger) Massman of Meta, Missouri, welcomed their eighth child, a fourth daughter, whom they named Christine Wilhemina. Her family lived on a farm and, in time, she joined her siblings for the three-mile walk to and from a one-room school. Since there was no transportation available to any local high school, she stayed on the farm to help her family. When she was 17, she joined some of her siblings in St. Louis and found work at the McBee Bindery Factory.
In her oral history, Sister Christine shared,
When I was beginning to pray about entering because I was at the point where I was serious about it, mostly because my confessor had said, 'I think God is asking something of you,' and I quickly said, when he said religious life ‘maybe.’ But I thought of marriage, too. I wasn’t going to let anybody push me into this direction.
The only sisters she had met were Sisters of St. Mary, who ministered at the hospital in Jefferson City. After reading pamphlets about various orders, Christine decided she would talk to the Notre Dame sisters. The very day she planned to visit, she was sick and stayed home. The following week, she went to Carondelet and rang the doorbell.
A novice answered the door … she was the very first Sister of St. Joseph that I had ever seen. ... She brought me into the parlor and Mother Vivian [Curtin] came to the parlor and we talked for a while, and then she gave me the papers and told me about it and if I was interested to sign up.”
Christine entered the Sisters of St. Joseph on September 15, 1945, and was received into the novitiate in 1946 as Sister Mary Joanna. As a postulant and novice, and even her early days as a teacher, she took classes to complete high school while also taking college courses. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Fontbonne (1961), a master’s as a reading specialist from Cardinal Stritch in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1968) and a master’s in religious education from Loyola University Chicago (1986).
Her ministry as an elementary teacher began at St. Margaret of Scotland in St. Louis (1948), followed by All Saints, University City, Missouri (1951); St. Cecilia, Peoria, Illinois (1959); and St. Bede the Venerable, Chicago (1963). In 1977, she returned to St. Louis and served as the religious education coordinator at St. Gregory Parish in St. Ann. She moved on to a similar position at St. John Bosco Parish in Creve Coeur, Missouri (1978). In 1991, S. Christine became a participant in the Emmaus Program, a program for personal growth.
It was for sisters only ... It was also enriching being with so many kinds of sisters ... you could almost see ... the difference between their charism and our charism. ... It made you grateful to be in the community that you were in. So, I found that very good.
During the time of the 1993 flood in St. Louis, S. Christine ministered as a secretary for the Development Office of the Salvation Army until 2000, when she took a position as a receptionist at St. Catherine Laboure Parish. In 2005, she left that position and became available to offer spiritual direction until she moved to Nazareth Living Center in 2012.