Eight members of St. Scholastica Monastery participated in the 27th annual Monastic Institute from June 24 to June 28 at Saint John’s University School of Theology – Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. The theme of this year’s conference , which is open to monastic men and women as well as lay persons, was “Prayer and Community.” It featured presentations by monastic men and women from “active” Benedictine communities and from contemplative Cistercian communities who also follow the Rule of St. Benedict according to the strict observance.
In addition to attending sessions by four key presenters, the 125 participants daily joined the monks of St. John’s for liturgcal prayer and Eucharist, had the opportunity for tours of the monastery and St. John’s Bible display, attended a social, heard a concert by the National Catholic Youth Choir, and spent an early evening as guests of the Sisters of St. Benedict’s Monastery in neighboring St. Joseph, Minnesota.
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Gathering around a new bronze statue of St. Benedict at St. John’s are (left to right) Sisters Agnes Fleck, Mary Josephine Torborg, Postulants Paule Barbeau, Elizabeth Farias, Sisters Michelle Dosch and Donna Schroeder, and in forefront Sisters Anne Marie Wainright and Mary Catherine Shambour.
Standing at the grave site of Mother Benedicta Reipp, following a pilgrimage and prayer service in honor of the 187th birthday of the Foundress of Benedictine Women in North America at St. Benedict’s Monastery, is Sister Anne Marie Wainright in First Monastic Profession at St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth.
Saint Scholastica Monastery is a daughter-house of St. Benedict’s Monastery. Mother Benedicta Reipp, OSB, and two Sisters from Saint Walburg Abbey in Eichstatt, Bavaria arived in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania in 1852. Within five years of her arrival, Mother Benedicta arranged for five Sisters and two candidates to move to St. Cloud in 1857 and later to St. Joseph, Minnesota. The community rapidly grew to over 1,200 members and was the inspiration for 46 Benedictine monasteries around the world. Mother Benedicta died in 1862 at the age of 37. The prayer service concluded with the words of Sister Ephrem Hollermann, a recent Prioress of St. Benedict’s: “May her life of prayer and work inspire us to move into our own uncharted future, with faith, hope, and love.”
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