Mother Regina Mary (Ann Marie) Kust, OSB, died Dec. 24, 2017, at the age of 97.

Ann Marie Kust was born in Haugen, Wis., to Joseph and Cecilia (Hrdlicka) Kust on April 4, 1920.

She began her religious life at Queen of Holy Angels Benedictine Monastery in Oregon as a teacher and musician.

In the 1980s, five sisters were sent from Oregon to Montana to begin a health ministry. After a few years, four sisters returned to Oregon, while Sr. Kust felt called to begin a new monastery and remained in Montana for further discernment.

After meeting Fr. John Hardon, SJ, and attending the Institute for Religious Life, she moved to Ann Arbor with several other sisters to help begin St. Michael School there.

After the school closed some years later, the sisters remained at their monastery until 2012, when Mother Kust moved to Livonia to take up residence with the Felician Sisters at St. Joseph Convent and Care Center.

Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Dec. 27, 2017, at Holy Spirit Parish in Brighton, celebrated by Fr. John Rocus, with whom Mother Kust had been friends. Mother Kust was buried at St. John Cemetery, Ypsilanti.