 Mount Saint Benedict Monastery, headquarters of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie | |
| Formation | 1856 |
|---|---|
| Type | Catholic religious order |
| Headquarters | Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Members | 100 as of 2015 [update] |
Parent organization | Order of Saint Benedict |
| Website | https://eriebenedictines.org |
The Benedictine Sisters of Erie are a Benedictine priory in Erie, Pennsylvania. They are known for their social and anti-war activism.
Mother Benedicta Rapp and five Benedictine sisters arrived in Erie in June 1856, [1] where they established the first daughter house of the Benedictine Sisters of Elk County, with Scholastica Burkhard appointed as Mother Superior. [2] Initially based out of a small chapel, in 1860 a three-story brick building was built, which was used as a convent and a parochial school. The community soon outgrew this building, and in 1868 and 1869 another brick building was built, this time on 10th Street, to be used as a school. This allowed the older brick building to be used solely by the sisters. The sisters funded construction of several additional buildings as the demand for space for more pupils increased. [2]
In 1966, the Sisters put together a musical performance that sold out concerts in Erie. They were then invited to appear on a January 1967 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, under the group name "Sisters-66". [3]
In June 1971, the priory began running the John XXIII Home For Senior Citizens. In 1994, the Sisters handed the operation over to a lay person. [4]
In the 1970s, the Sisters began updating their prayer books to remove the usage of exclusively male pronouns for God. [5]
During the Vietnam War, the Sisters refused to allow military recruiters to visit St. Benedict Academy. Sister Mary Lou Kownacki organized "die-ins" around Erie in protest of the war. [5]
In 1980, the Sisters used some of their remaining finances to dig a natural gas well near the priory; the well was successful, allowing the priory to fuel itself with natural gas. [6] [7] Mobil Corporation later reached out to ask if they could include the Sisters' story in an advertisement; the priory turned down the request, due to the corporation's alleged breaking of a boycott against Rhodesia. When Mobil ran an ad referencing the Sisters anyway in 1981, they brought their complaints to the press. [8] In November 1982, the priory installed a wind generator, in order to continue to harness local natural resources. [9] [10]
Also in 1980, the priory organized the first Good Friday pilgrimage walk through Erie. The walk has been used to express discontent with global conflicts; in 1999, for example, the walk was used to draw attention to the conflict in Kosovo. [11]
In July 1986, the Sisters signed onto a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Bureau of State Parks, which alleged that the state was in violation of the state sewage facility act. [12] By late 1986, the priory had a group of nuns who had trained as clowns, who performed both at Erie events and at some priory services. [13]
In 1991, during a local radio show segment, the Benedictine Sisters were voted "bad guy" of the day due to their staunch antiwar efforts; their opponent in the competition was Saddam Hussein. [14]
In October 1999, the Benedictine Sisters, along with the local Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of St. Joseph, began holding Take Back The Site vigils. [15] [16] The vigils, held at sites of homicides, aim to "reclaim the sites for nonviolence". [15] In December 1999, the Sisters announced the Benedicta Riepp Program, which would allow women to temporarily join the Sisters for up to four years. [17]
In 2001, one of the Sisters, Sister Joan Chittister, spoke at a conference in favor of women's ordination, in violation of a Vatican decree. All but one of the 128 Benedictine Sisters of Erie, including Prioress Christine Vladimiroff, signed a letter in support of Chittister. [5]
In 2015, the Sisters had 100 members. [15]
In 2024, a Republican Party operative on X accused the Sisters of voter fraud, claiming that 53 voters were registered at the Sister's priory, based on the misunderstanding that no voters lived there. The Sisters refuted the accusations, and emphasized their nonpartisan status amid rising election misinformation in Pennsylvania. [18] [19]
In 1869, the Sisters opened St. Benedict Academy in Erie, which they continued to run until its closing in 1988 from low enrollment. [20] In the early 20th century, the Sisters also ran six parochial schools in the region. [2]
In 1989, the Sisters opened the school the St. Benedict Education Center in Erie County, which also serves students from Clarion, Crawford, Forest, Venango, and Warren counties. [21]
The Sisters also run the Saint Benedict Child Care Center, which originated as a Head Start program run out of the former convent building. In 1969, they expanded to offer an after-school program. In 1984, they took over administration of the East Coast Migrant Head Start program. By 1982, the programs were run from their current location, which was renovated in 1992. Following the expansion, the Sisters also took on state program Pre K Counts. [21]
In 1981, the Benetwood Apartments were opened on the priory's property as part of a federal Housing and Urban Development program. The 75 apartments are home primarily to seniors and low-income disabled residents. [21]
In 1994, the Sisters opened the Inner City Neighborhood Art House, which offers art classes and programs for children. [21]
The Saint Benedictine Community Center is a recreational facility in Erie, which is used by several local social service groups. [21]
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.
Sopwell Priory was a Benedictine nunnery founded around 1140 on the site of an ancient hermitage in Sopwell, Hertfordshire, England. After the Dissolution, the priory was torn down and a Tudor manor house constructed in its place.
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.
Arthington Priory was an English monastery which was home to a community of nuns in Arthington, West Yorkshire, founded in the mid-12th century. The priory land is occupied by a residence called "Arthington Hall", which was built around 1585, and little, if anything, remains of the priory. The site of the priory church is possibly now occupied by a farmhouse called The Nunnery. The community was the only one of nuns of the Cluniac congregation in Yorkshire and one of two in England. It was established through a grant by Peter de Arthington.
Eibingen Abbey is a community of Benedictine nuns in Eibingen near Rüdesheim in Hesse, Germany. Founded by Hildegard of Bingen in 1165, it was dissolved in 1804, but restored, with new buildings, in 1904. The nuns produce wine and crafts. They sing regular services, which have been at times recorded. The church is also used as a concert venue. The abbey is a Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site.
Prior is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be lower in rank than the abbey's abbot or abbess.
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 Christine Vladimiroff, OSB was the prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie from 1998 to 2010. In 2004, she was also president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, USA.
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 Mary's Abbey in Colwich, Staffordshire was an abbey of Roman Catholic nuns of the English Benedictine Congregation, founded in 1623 at Cambrai, Flanders, in the Spanish Netherlands, and closed down in 2020. During the French Revolution, the community was expelled from France and settled at Mount Pleasant, Colwich, in 1836, where it remained for the next 84 years.
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.
Markyate Priory was a Benedictine priory in Bedfordshire, England. It was established in 1145 and disestablished in 1537.
St. George's Priory, Thetford was a Benedictine priory on the Suffolk side of Thetford, England. It was located at the current site of the British Trust for Ornithology, South of Nuns Bridges Road.
St Mary's Abbey, Oulton is a former Benedictine convent located in the village of Oulton near Stone in Staffordshire, England. The Abbey church is Grade II* listed, and other buildings are Grade II. The Benedictine community was founded in 1624 in Ghent, from a motherhouse established in Brussels in 1598 by Lady Mary Percy. In 1794 as a result of the French Revolution the nuns were forced to flee to England, settling initially in Preston, moving in 1811 to Caverswall Castle, Stoke on Trent.
Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green. Founded in the mid-12th century, it was a small, often struggling, house. It was dissolved in 1538, and a large house was built on the site in Tudor and Jacobean styles by the Giffard family of Chillington Hall. Much of this is incorporated in the present Black Ladies, a large, Grade II*-listed, private residence.
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.
Mary David Walgenbach is an American nun. She serves as the prioress of Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Sister Mary Lou Kownacki was a Roman Catholic Benedictine nun, peace activist, and writer. She was a close friend and collaborator of fellow nun and activist Joan Chittister. Kownacki was arrested 13 times over the course of her life for activism-related offenses.