This year we mark 75 years of Sisters living and working in the historic McCabe house in Hunter’s Park neighborhood of Duluth. The McCabe family donated their beautiful home to St. Scholastica Priory in January, 1940. It has served us as a home for the elderly, a dormitory for high school and college students, a home for Sisters, a residence for handicapped adults and, since 1977, a spiritual resource center.
On Sunday, September 20, we celebrated with an open house. Visitors enjoyed tours led by ‘Sister Geraldine Sullivan’ (played by Jude Collins), a Benedictine Sister who cared for elderly men and women here in the 1940s and ‘50s. ‘Fiona’, an elderly Irish woman played by Sister Barbara Higgins, talked about her experiences as a resident.
Step into McCabe and it feels like going back a hundred years. Much of the original surfaces have been preserved or restored. Even the bathrooms are little works of art.
One of the most interesting bedrooms is Poustinia, a Russian name meaning ‘desert’; it is a small, sparsely-furnished cabin or room for praying intensely to God.
McCabe is a beautiful, peaceful place to have a silent retreat or join in group activities. You may see deer feeding in the early morning, and if you are lucky you may glimpse the timber wolf, a temporary resident of the neighborhood. Or perhaps the ghost of Fiona will greet you at the door…
