Monastery information | |
---|---|
Order | Order of Saint Benedict |
Established | 1863 |
Mother house | St. Joseph Monastery, St. Marys, Pennsylvania |
Archdiocese | Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis |
Diocese | Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud |
People | |
Founder(s) | Benedicta Riepp |
Prior | Sister Susan Rudolph |
Site | |
Location | 104 Chapel Lane, St. Joseph, Minnesota, United States |
Coordinates | 45°33′47″N94°19′7″W / 45.56306°N 94.31861°W |
Public access | Yes |
Website | sbm |
St. Benedict's Convent and College Historic District | |
Area | 6 acres (2.4 ha) |
Built | 1882–1920s |
Architect | George Bergmann, George Stauduhar, Buechner & Orth, et al. |
Architectural style | Beaux-Arts, Renaissance Revival, Romanesque Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 89000160 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 20, 1989 |
Saint Benedict's Monastery is a monastery (or convent) 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. [2]
The Sisters trace their roots to Saint Walburg Abbey in Eichstätt, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Six of them emigrated to St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 1857, moving to St. Joseph in 1863. Mother Benedicta Riepp, considered the founder of Benedictine women's communities in the United States, is buried in the monastery cemetery. [3] Seven sisters from the convent moved to Atchison, Kansas, where they founded the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica. [4]
Recognizing the need for higher education, they founded Saint Benedict's Academy in 1878, which developed into the College of Saint Benedict in 1913. In 1961, the Sisters transferred ownership of the college, constituting it as a separately incorporated institution. As two fiscally independent corporations, the college and the Monastery share adjacent campuses but are governed by two separate Boards (the Monastic Council governs the Sisters). [3]
Saint Benedict's Monastery has been the largest Benedictine community of women in the world, with a peak membership of 1,278 in 1946. In 2010, it was the largest Benedictine community of women in the United States with nearly 300 members. [3]
On August 15, 2012, the 27 Sisters living at Saint Bede Monastery became members of Saint Benedict's Monastery. On March 27, 2012, the Sisters of Saint Benedict's had voted to receive the Benedictine Sisters of Saint Bede's Monastery in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Their Monastery's land was purchased by the University of Wisconsin for use in a children's education program. [5]
The central core of the convent and college was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 for having local significance in the themes of architecture, education, and religion. [6] The St. Benedict's Convent and College Historic District consists of 14 buildings, two other structures, and five objects built between 1882 and the late 1920s. The district was nominated for representing the impact and growth of the world's largest Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict community. [7]
During the early 20th century, the Sisters of Saint Benedict's Convent saw expansion. There were about thirty new members each year. Because of the lack of space, building plans were made in 1910 to create both a new chapel and a college hall. The original Sacred Heart Chapel was officially opened on March 25, 1914. [8]
The chapel, in Beaux-Arts style, is the most prominent building in the town. It was designed by architect George Stauduhar. The ribbed dome is 135 feet (41 m) high, rests on a base surrounded by Ionic columns, and incorporates several oculus windows. The main altar is located directly below the dome. At the time, the roof was supported by sixteen granite columns. [9]
In 1981, the Benedictine Monastery decided that they wanted a space that reflected their new awareness of modern Benedictine spirituality. The chapel was extensively renovated, which involved rearrangement of the seating and the removal of eight of the granite columns. The columns that were removed were incorporated into the Gathering Place, an addition to the west side of the chapel. The Gathering Place hosts liturgical, social, and educational events; an oratory for the prayer of the Divine Office; and the monastery's archives. The renovation was designed by Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, with Frank Kacmarcik consulting on liturgy and design. By the spring of 1983, the new Sacred Heart Chapel was complete, with a final cost of $4.5 million. The Sacred Heart Chapel is an important symbol of Benedictine tradition and demonstrates how the Benedictine heritage can meet modern spiritual vitality. [8] [9]
A commitment to education led the Sisters to open and staff schools in Central Minnesota and abroad, including in Native American communities. Since 1857, 1,653 Sisters have taught in 163 elementary and secondary schools located primarily in the Diocese of St. Cloud.
The Sisters’ role in providing health care is reflected in the establishment and staffing of St. Cloud Hospital; the Queen of Peace Hospital in New Prague, Minnesota; the St. Cloud School of Nursing; a school of anesthesia, a school of x-ray technology, St. Benedict's Senior Community, and other institutions.
A key development in the history of Saint Benedict's Monastery has been its role in the founding of other independent houses of Benedictine women in the United States and abroad. It is a member of the Federation of St. Benedict, which includes Saint Benedict's Monastery, St. Joseph, Minn.; St. Paul's Monastery, St. Paul, Minn.; St. Placid Priory, Lacey, Wash.; St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, Ill.; Annunciation Monastery, Bismarck, North Dakota; St. Scholastica Monastery, Duluth, Minn.; Saint Benedict's Monastery, Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan; Saint Benedict's Monastery, Tamsui, New Taipei, Taiwan; Saint Martin Monastery, Nassau, NP The Bahamas; Mount Benedict Monastery, Ogden, Utah; and Monasterio Santa Escolastica, Humacao, Puerto Rico. In addition, Saint Benedict's Monastery founded three Native American missions in Minnesota. [3]
The Sisters are involved in Benedictine Friends, a program that connects students at the College of St. Benedict with the Monastery. The program is meant to engage the spirituality of students by allowing them to meet and bond with the Sisters. [10]
The Sisters opened the Art and Heritage Place in 2000 to share their art and history. The Haehn Museum features a rotating annual exhibit about the lives and ministries of the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict; it includes their influence locally, around the state, and around the world. The Whitby Gift Shop and Gallery offers four art exhibits a year, in addition to selling works by the Sisters and local artists. [3]
The Sisters operate the Spirituality Center for individual and group retreats, programs, and spiritual direction. Known for its spiritual direction internship, the Spirituality Center has trained people in the art of spiritual direction and provides access to spiritual directors. It also holds daily sessions and regular workshops in centering prayer, a form of Christian meditation. A number of other programs and retreats are offered throughout the year. Since 2007, the Spirituality Center has operated Subiaco Hermitage, a cabin on the property for individual retreats. [3]
Benedict of Nursia, often known as Saint Benedict, was an Italian Catholic monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Churches. In 1964 Pope Paul VI declared Benedict a patron saint of Europe.
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. Not all Benedictines wear black, however, with some like the Olivetans wearing 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.
St. Joseph or Saint Joseph is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 7,029 at the 2020 census. It is home to the College of Saint Benedict.
Benedictine College is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Atchison, Kansas, United States. It was established in 1971 by the merger of St. Benedict's College for men and Mount St. Scholastica College for women. It is located on bluffs overlooking the Missouri River, northwest of Kansas City, Missouri.
The College of St. Scholastica (CSS) is a private Benedictine college in Duluth, Minnesota. Founded in 1912 by a group of pioneering Benedictine Sisters, today St. Scholastica educates almost 4,000 students annually and has graduated more than 29,000 alumni. The college offers a liberal arts education and is located on 186 wooded acres overlooking Lake Superior.
In Christianity, an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God and to God's service.
Belmont Abbey College is a private, Catholic liberal arts college in Belmont, North Carolina. It was founded in 1876 by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey. The college is affiliated with the Catholic Church and the Order of Saint Benedict. Belmont Abbey is the only college in North Carolina affiliated with the Catholic Church.
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.
Saint John's Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Collegeville Township, Minnesota, United States, affiliated with the American-Cassinese Congregation. The abbey was established following the arrival in the area of monks from Saint Vincent Archabbey in Pennsylvania in 1856. Saint John's is one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in the Western Hemisphere, with 110 professed monks. The Right Reverend Fr. Doug Mullin, OSB, serves as the eleventh abbot.
Anglican religious orders are communities of men or women in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule of life. The members of religious orders take vows which often include the traditional monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, or the ancient vow of stability, or sometimes a modern interpretation of some or all of these vows. Members may be laity or clergy, but most commonly include a mixture of both. They lead a common life of work and prayer, sometimes on a single site, sometimes spread over multiple locations. Though many Anglicans are members of religious orders recognized by the Anglican Communion, others may be members of ecumenical Protestant or Old Catholic religious orders while maintaining their Anglican identity and parochial membership in Anglican churches.
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.
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.
The Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, colloquially known as the "Good Sams", is a Roman Catholic congregation of religious women commenced by Bede Polding, OSB, Australia’s first Catholic bishop, in Sydney in 1857. The congregation was the first religious congregation to be founded in Australia. The sisters form an apostolic institute that follows the Rule of Saint Benedict. They take their name from the well-known gospel parable of the Good Samaritan.
Mary Annella Zervas, O.S.B.(born Anna Cordelia Zervas; April 7, 1900 – August 14, 1926) was an American Benedictine religious sister who died after a three-year long 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.
The Abbey of Saint Scholastica, also known as Subiaco Abbey, is located just outside the town of Subiaco in the Province of Rome, Region of Lazio, Italy; and is still an active Benedictine abbey, territorial abbey, first founded in the 6th century AD by Saint Benedict of Nursia. It was in one of the Subiaco caves that Benedict made his first hermitage. The monastery today gives its name to the Subiaco Congregation, a grouping of monasteries worldwide that makes up part of the Order of Saint Benedict.
St. Mary's Church, School and Convent is a historic Roman Catholic church complex off United States Route 212 in Zell, South Dakota.
St. Andrew Abbey-Cleveland is a Benedictine monastery in Cleveland, Ohio.
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.
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.
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