Born Dec. 29, 1898, in Louisville, Ky., Catherine was the daughter of Albert and Elizabeth Strangel Faller, second generation Germans who spoke and prayed in their ancestral language in their home. Catherine continued praying privately in German throughout her life. She attended St. Paul School. After the completion of elementary school, she remained at home helping her mother. Catherine’s family attended services at St. Paul Church. She was drawn to religious life by the example of the Ursuline Sisters who taught there. She entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. Catherine received the Ursuline habit on August 5, 1918. She had asked for her father’s name, Albert, but Sister Agnes O’Flynn thought that Benita, “Little Blessing,” would be more appropriate.
Sister Benita began mission life in 1918 as housekeeper at St. Columba in Louisville. Until 1960, she served the teaching Sisters in other convents in Kentucky: St. Lawrence, Louisville (St. Angela Home, St. Paul), Leitchfield (St. Paul), Cloverport, Vine Grove, Flaherty, Holy Cross, Earlington, the Motherhouse, St. Charles, Earlington, Raywick, Rome, Browns Valley, Holy Cross, and Sts. Joseph and Paul, Owensboro; in Nebraska (Plattsmouth and Paul), and in Waterflow, New Mexico. Sister Benita was an excellent cook. Her meals were not only well planned and nourishing, but attractively served. Most always, she had fresh flowers on the table even when wild flowers from the fields were the only blooms available. In fall and winter, she arranged leaves, dried grasses, evergreens and bittersweet as decorations throughout the house. Sister Benita never missed an occasion to have a banquet -‑ feast days, birthdays, holidays and holy days.
In mid-March 1960, while at St. Joseph and Paul, Sister Benita became very ill and was brought to the infirmary at the Mount for rest and care. Her condition worsened and she was taken to Mercy Hospital in Owensboro. She received numerous blood transfusions. Surgery was attempted twice, but doctors could do only temporary repairs to the bleeding ulcers. Sister Benita died on Holy Thursday, April 14, 1960. Her remains were brought to Mount Saint Joseph on Good Friday. The burial service took place in the convent cemetery on Holy Saturday. The funeral Mass was postponed until April 18, Easter Monday.