Mother of God Monastery
110  28th Ave. SE ~  Watertown,  SD  57201
Phone: 605-882-6600  Fax: 605-882-6658
monastery@dailypost.com

COMMUNITY

SISTER JAN LA PLANTE

Sister Jan LaPlante, a native of Webster, Massachusetts, is the daughter of Joseph and Lucille LaPlante.  She entered Mother of God Monastery as a  Postulant in 1978 and made her temporary profession in 1980.  She made perpetual profession on June 28, 1985 at Holy Name Church in Watertown.

Prior to entering the monastery, Sr. Jan graduated from Bartlett High School, Webster, MA and following her graduation she worked in a textile manufacturing company as a quality control textile supervisor.  In 1972, she began her journey as a lay missionary with the Jesuit Volunteer Corp.  As a Jesuit Volunteer, she worked with Hispanic and Anglo people in Cornelius, Oregon.  She then journeyed to the remote village in Bethel, Alaska, and worked among the Eskimo and Athabascan Indian people in the Diocese of Fairbanks.  From the peace and solitude of the tundra, she responded to the invitation to journey to the prairies of South Dakota to work as a lay missionary with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at the Tekakwitha Indian Children’s Home in Sisseton until she entered Mother of God Monastery.  After her novitiate, S. Jan was involved in the Christian Ministry Program at the monastery, developed the Benedictine Lay Associate Program and helped care for the monastery land.

S. Jan received her B.A. Degree in Christian Ministry with a Addiction Minor, from the University of Mary, Bismarck, ND.  She also holds a M.A. degree in Counseling and Human Resource Development from South Dakota State, Brookings.  She became a Master Level Addiction Counselor.

S. Jan’s ministry for the past 22 years has been working with troubled adolescents and youth at high risk for dispositional placements.  She primarily works as a clinical group therapist.  She has implemented the first Therapeutic Community Service Program in Watertown for adjudicated youth, integrating the Fr. Flanagan’s Boys Town social skills.  Before her ministry in Watertown, S. Jan also worked at the Pierre Indian School and Glory House in Sioux Falls.

For leisure, S. Jan raises bottle lambs for farmers, enjoys cross country skiing, fishing, hunting and describes her religious journey as primarily a story about walking in faith.