The Benedictines Sisters of Elk County were a religious congregation established in Marienstadt, Pennsylvania in 1852 by three sisters from Saint Walburge Abbey in Bavaria. There they established St. Joseph Monastery, the first convent of Benedictine Sisters in North America. They opened a school for girls, St. Benedict Academy, and in 1933 expanded their apostolate into healthcare, becoming the owner and operator of Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital in St. Marys.
Daughter houses were established in Erie, Pennsylvania (Mount St. Benedict Monastery - 1856), Newark, New Jersey (St. Gertrude Monastery - 1857), and St. Cloud, Minnesota (Saint Benedict's Monastery) which became separate congregations in their own right.
Over time the members of the congregation aged while fewer candidates entered the community; the monastery itself was in need of repair. In January 2014, the 17 nuns remaining voted to dissolve the community. They then dispersed to either assisted living facilities or to some other Benedictine monasteries.
The Benedictines Sisters of Elk County are the foundational community of the Congregation of St. Scholastica, a federation of the monasteries which trace their heritage to St. Joseph Monastery,
Sybilla Riepp was born in Waal, Bavaria, on June 28, 1825, one of four daughters born to John and Catherine Riepp. Her father was a glassblower. In January 1844, she entered St. Walburg Convent in Eichstätt, Bavaria, and received the name Benedicta. She professed solemn vows on July 9, 1849, at the age of twenty-four. Sister Benedicta taught in the girls’ school of Eichstätt during the eight years she lived there. She also served as novice mistress. [1]
Around 1848, the School Sisters of Notre Dame had settled in Marienstadt (St. Mary's, Pennsylvania); but left the following year to settle elsewhere. Bishop Michael O'Connor of Pittsburgh asked Boniface Wimmer of the Monastery of Saint Vincent in Latrobe to take over the mission at St. Mary's. In 1851, Wimmer, who was originally from Bavaria, sent a request to St. Walburg Convent for sisters to teach the children of German immigrants. [1]
Sister Benedicta was among those who volunteered, and was appointed superior. She and her two companions left from Bremen and sailed from Southampton, arriving in New York, on the steamer Washington, on the evening of July 3, 1852. They reached Saint Vincent Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on July 8. A family by the name of Head extended hospitality, and after a week's rest, the sisters proceeded to St. Marys, Pennsylvania, arriving on July 22. There they established St. Joseph Monastery, the first convent of Benedictine Sisters in North America. [2]
Two more sisters arrived from Eichstätt the following year. With a small addition added to the convent, the sisters were able to take in a few boarders and orphans. Their food consisted mostly of potatoes, rye bread, buckwheat cakes, and thin soup. There numbers increased, both from local applicants and additional sisters from Eichstätt. In total, St. Walburga's monastery contributed thirteen sisters to the American foundation. [2]
The six years Mother Benedicta spent as Superior at Saint Joseph Monastery in St. Marys were filled with physical hardship and misunderstandings between herself and Prior Wimmer of St. Vincent's. Funds sent by King Ludwig for the convent were redirected toward two mills, one at St. Mary and the second at the priory. As she understood St. Joseph Monastery to be an autonomous Benedictine community under the jurisdiction of the local bishop, she resisted Wimmer's interference in the internal matters of the women's community. He, having been made abbot in 1855, questioned her authority as the Superior of the convents she founded. The dispute over jurisdiction seems to have caused some turmoil in the St. Joseph's community. Nevertheless, her leadership during those years resulted in the establishment of three new foundations: Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania (1856), St. Gertrude Monastery in Newark, New Jersey (1857), and Saint Benedict's Monastery in St. Cloud, Minnesota (1857). [3] Convents in Covington (1859) and Chicago (1861) branched off from Erie.
In 1857, Mother Benedicta travelled to Europe. She hoped her superiors in Eichstätt and Rome would help her resolve the controversy surrounding the independence of the new convents in North America. As the American congregation was expected to separate from the Motherhouse, she and her companion were no longer considered members of Eichstätt and were not welcomed. They were prevented from traveling to Rome to present her case before the Pope. [3]
Mother Benedicta returned to the United States in 1858, broken in spirit and failing in health. Due to Wimmer's influence, she was no longer welcome in the convents she had founded in the eastern U.S. At the invitation of Mother Willibalda Scherbauer in St. Cloud, she moved to the Minnesota city in the spring of 1858. In 1859, a decree from Rome placed the convents in Erie and Newark under the jurisdiction of their respective ordinaries. On March 15, 1862 Benedicta died of tuberculosis. In 1884, her remains were transferred from St. Cloud to the convent cemetery in St. Joseph. [3]
St. Joseph Monastery was the first Benedictine monastery for women to be founded in the United States. The monastery operated until 2014.
The monastery was founded by Mother Benedicta Riepp, O.S.B., who was sent, along with two companions, from St. Walburga Abbey in Eichstätt, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. They had come at the invitation of Abbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., who had founded the first monastery of the Benedictine monks in the country in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He determined a need in the small town heavily populated with Bavarian Roman Catholic immigrants for religious presence and support, as well as an opportunity for the nuns to teach the children of these immigrants. [4]
Soon after their arrival, a girls' school was entrusted to them; two years later they took charge of the boys' school. the sisters also taught in the public schools until 1895. [2] At one time the monastery was largely self-sufficient, raising its own crops and livestock. [5] In 1964, Sister Augustine was taught ceramics by Rita Jane (Cassady) Selle, an alumna of St. Benedict's Academy, and started St. Joseph Ceramics and became known for her nativity sets. She continued crafting pieces, which became collectibles, well into her nineties. Author John Schlimm wrote about Sr. Augustine and her work in his book Five Years in Heaven. [6]
Daughter houses were established in Erie, Pennsylvania (Mount St. Benedict Monastery - 1856), Newark, New Jersey (St. Gertrude Monastery - 1857), and St. Cloud, Minnesota (Saint Benedict's Monastery) which became separate congregations in their own right.
From these beginnings, and as the community grew, so too did the mission of the Sisters. They expanded into health care and operated the Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital in the town. The hospital was created in the aftermath 1918 Influenza epidemic of 1918 by the three daughters of St. Marys businessman Andrew Kaul. They converted the dormant men's Benedictine monastery into a local hospital. It was turned over to the Sisters from St. Joseph's in 1933. In November 1934 a fire destroyed everything but the stone walls. The sisters closed their girls school, St. Benedict's Academy and converted it to a temporary hospital until a new one could be completed in 1941. [7] The sisters owned and operated the hospital until 1978 when it was turned over to a public-not-for -profit corporation. [8]
At its peak between the 1930s and 1950s, the monastery had 125 sisters. In January 2014, it was announced that the 17 nuns, ranging in age from 58 to 91, had voted to dissolve the community. "The closure was prompted by declining health and number of members, combined with outdated facilities, retired Erie Bishop Donald Trautman said. [9] The nuns planned to disperse, some to assisted living facilities, and others to other Benedictine monasteries. [10] In 2018, St. Mary’s Parish reached an agreement with the Benedictine Sisters of Elk County to transfer ownership of their St. Joseph Monastery lands to the parish. [11]
The only extant writings of Mother Benedicta are fourteen letters written between the years 1852 and 1861. These letters reveal her conviction that her Benedictine vocation was a privilege. [3]
St. Joseph Monastery is considered the foundation of the Congregation of St. Scholastica, a federation of the monasteries which trace their heritage from St. Joseph Monastery, which received the approval of the Holy See in 1922 (later renamed the Federation of St. Scholastica in 1974). [15] Originally it consisted of ten houses in seven states; now, it encompasses 22 monasteries in 15 states, Mexico and Brazil. [16]
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, they are the oldest of all the religious orders in the Latin Church. The male religious are also sometimes called the Black Monks, especially in English speaking countries, after the colour of their habits, although some, like the Olivetans, wear white. They were founded by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century Italian monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, possibly his twin, also became a religious from an early age, but chose to live as a hermit. They retained a close relationship until her death.
Scholastica was an Italian Christian hermit and the sister of Benedict of Nursia. She is traditionally regarded as the foundress of the Benedictine nuns.
Joan Daugherty Chittister, is an American Benedictine nun, theologian, author, and speaker. She has served as Benedictine prioress and Benedictine federation president, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women.
Holy Name Monastery is a Roman Catholic Benedictine women's monastery located in Saint Leo, Florida, owned and operated by the Benedictine Sisters of Florida. It was known first as Holy Name Convent and then as Holy Name Priory before taking its current name in the 1990s.
Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, (1809–1887) was a German monk who in 1846 founded the first Benedictine monastery in the United States, Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, forty miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Saint Emma Monastery is a Roman Catholic retreat house and monastery for the Sisters of Saint Benedict of Westmoreland County, located in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
There are a number of Benedictine Anglican religious orders, some of them using the name Order of St. Benedict (OSB). Just like their Roman Catholic counterparts, each abbey/priory/convent is independent of each other. The vows are not made to an order, but to a local incarnation of the order, hence each individual order is free to develop its own character and charism, yet each under a common rule of life after the precepts of St. Benedict. Most of the communities include a confraternity of oblates. The order consists of a number of independent communities.
The Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg Monastery is a Roman Catholic congregation of women. whose motherhouse, St. Walburg Monastery, is located at Villa Madonna, in Villa Hills, Kentucky. It was founded in 1859 by three sisters of the Benedictine congregation of Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania, who came to Covington to teach the German-speaking children of St. Joseph's parish. They became an independent congregation in 1867. Villa Madonna Academy, a private, Roman Catholic K-12 school is part of the sisters' ministry in Kentucky. Besides operating the Academy, the sisters taught in parish schools and staffed St. John's Orphanage.
Benedictine Sisters of Chicago is a Roman Catholic Benedictine congregation of women. It was founded in 1861 by three sisters of the Benedictine congregation of Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania, who came to Chicago to teach the German-speaking children of St. Joseph's parish. They became an independent congregation in 1872. St. Scholastica's Monastery in Rogers Park, Chicago is the Motherhouse. St. Scholastica Academy was an integral part of the sisters' ministry in Chicago.
Sister Mary Louise St. John, O.S.B., was a Benedictine nun and a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania. She was an advocate for the rights of people with physical disabilities, as well as for the gay community.
Saint Benedict's Monastery is a monastery of the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, in St. Joseph, Minnesota, United States. The 18th and current prioress of Saint Benedict's Monastery is Sister Karen Rose, OSB who was installed on June 4, 2023.
Mary Annella Zervas, O.S.B.(born Anna Cordelia Zervas; April 7, 1900 – August 14, 1926) was an American Catholic religious sister who joined the Benedictines at a young age and died at 26 after a three-year battle with pityriasis rubra pilaris. Prior to the 1960s, Zervas' grave in St. Joseph, Minnesota, was considered a place of Christian pilgrimage and began to be once again around 2008. On October 15, 2023, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston opened a cause for her canonization.
Louis Mary Fink, O.S.B., was a German-born Benedictine monk and prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first Bishop of Leavenworth (1877–1904).
The American-Cassinese Congregation is a Catholic association of Benedictine monasteries founded in 1855. The monasteries of the congregation follow the monastic way of life as outlined by St. Benedict of Nursia in his early 6th century Rule of Saint Benedict. The congregation is one of 19 congregations in the Benedictine Confederation and includes 25 monasteries: 19 autonomous abbeys and 6 dependent priories, located across 15 states and Puerto Rico, as well as Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and Taiwan.
The Monastery Immaculate Conception is a monastery in Ferdinand, Indiana. It is home to one of the largest communities of Benedictine women in the United States. It is located approximately fifteen minutes from St. Meinrad Archabbey.
St. Benedict's Abbey is an American community of monks of the Order of St. Benedict located in Atchison, Kansas. It was founded in 1857 to provide education to the sons of German settlers in the Kansas Territory.
Mary Domitilla Thuener was a nun and mathematician who served as the first head of Villa Madonna College. She was one of a few women who earned their PhD in math in the U.S. before World War II.
Mother Gertrude McDermott (1846–1940) was a member of the Order of St. Benedict from 1879 until her death on September 22, 1940. McDermott began her life's work on an Indian reservation in the Dakota Territory where she was a teacher as well as a friend and adviser to Sitting Bull. She went on to be the founder of several educational and medical institutions in Sioux City, Iowa. McDermott also established a religious community which continues as the Benedictine Women of Madison in Wisconsin.
The Benedictine Sisters of Erie are a Benedictine priory in Erie, Pennsylvania. They are known for their social and anti-war activism.
The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica are an education-focused Benedictine religious community in Atchison, Kansas. The monastery founded Mount St.Scholastica College, a women's college which merged with St. Benedict's College in 1971, forming what is now Benedictine College.
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