Sister Marietta Hackner's Story & Gallery
Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Marietta Hackner was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1882, the firstborn of eight children. Her parents moved from Bavaria, Germany, in 1881, to La Crosse and were married at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral.
It was in La Crosse that Marietta’s father, Egid Hackner, started the world-renowned Hackner Altar Company which manufactured hand-crafted wood pieces for churches internationally. Because she grew up surrounded by art and expert craftsmen, she became a skilled draftsperson at a young age.
As a teenager she became ill with an attack of pleurisy and went to Sacred Heart Sanitorium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for treatment. During her stay in Milwaukee, Sister Marietta attended McHeines’s Art School. She later attended St. Xavier Academy in Chicago, Illinois.
After her studies, she returned to La Crosse and joined St. Rose Convent in 1907 and continued studying and copying many famous religious paintings. Sister Marietta had a prolific art career, creating a variety of wood sculptures and paintings and embracing her family’s artistic roots. She was an artist by profession and spent 56 years working in her field. She was the first art teacher at Aquinas High School in La Crosse and served in the art departments at Viterbo College (now known as Viterbo University) and St. Rose. She also spent a year in Sparta, Wisconsin, and a year at Marycliff High School in Spokane, Washington. At the age of 92 and in the sixty-fifth year of her religious profession, Sister Marietta passed away in 1974.
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