Saint Benedict Monastery
We are celebrating!
A wonderful celebration took place on May 1, 2018 at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Richmond, VA. Our sisters, sisters from other communities, relatives, friends and oblates came to celebrate with us.
150 Years and Building...
"150 years and Building" is the tagline for our Jubilee Campaign as we prepare to embark on a capital campaign to build a new monastery. May 1, 2018 will mark the 150th anniversary of our founding. During the Civil War, Richmond, VA, 'Capitol of the Confederacy," was devastated and Catholic Schools were closed. In 1868 a dedicated parish priest traveled all the way to St. Marys, PA to get Benedictine sisters to reopen his parish school and he would not leave without the promise of three sisters joining him. Thus the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia were founded in the war torn, disease-ridden South. When they arrived on May 1st, the parish was in the middle of its May Day celebration and all gathered to greet the sisters. The sisters reopened the parish school and started a "finishing" school, named St. Mary's, for young women. The first years were very difficult with cramped conditions, poor food, and rampant tuberculosis. There are thirty graves in a Richmond cemetery of very young sisters. Eventually, the "Motherhouse" was moved to Bristow at the invitation of the monks from Belmont, NC who had been given a large land grant there to educate children. Bristow was primitive farmland in the 1890's and considered a much healthier environment for the sisters. Again, three sisters arrived in Bristow on May 1st, 1894. In an unusual tale between sisters and monks, Belmont Abbey eventually decided to bring their monks home and deeded over their 1700 acres of land to our sisters! If you have done the math, you will see that we Benedictine Sisters of Virginia have a huge year of celebration ahead!! May 1st, 2018 (the 150th anniversary of our foundation) to May 1st, 2019 (our 125th anniversary of being at Bristow.)
In all of these 150 years we have remained the only motherhouse of active sisters in the State of Virginia. Designated as mission territory because of the few numbers of Catholics, there are several orders of sisters working in Virginia who come from other places - mostly "up North"! In addition to our own two schools, Saint Gertrude High School in Richmond and Linton Hall School in Bristow, we established quite a few parochial schools throughout the Richmond and Arlington Dioceses. In the 1980's and 90's we turned our attention to social needs in our area and began the Benedictine Pastoral Center for spiritual outreach, Benedictine Counseling Services for affordable mental health care, our BEACON adult literacy program which now works with 400 immigrants, and our transitional housing program for homeless moms and their children. Speaking of anniversaries, this year will be BEACON's 25th and Transitional Housing BARN's 20th! Recently, because of the huge housing boom surrounding us, we declared our grounds a "Place of Peace" and built a labyrinth, turned two old silos into open chapels with a strip of stained glass, made gardens and walkways, placed a series of peace poles in different languages, etc. All visitors are welcome from sunup to sundown.
God has been very generous to us in blessing our ministries through our community as we constantly strive to determine the needs of our neighbors and how we might use our resources. The latest turn of events has been the development of a close relationship with the local Muslim community. We were able to offer them a safe haven in our school gym for their nightly Ramadan prayers and we are supporting them at the county hearings for their proposed building of a mosque on the road behind us - a very tough fight for them.
Ours has been a 150-year history of responding to the Spirit's call and direction in the monastic tradition. Throughout these years, our sisters have dedicated themselves selflessly and we so honor and appreciate those strong women who have gone before us. As women continue to join our community, we "face forward in hope" to see what is next on our horizon!
Stay tuned for notice of the 150th anniversary celebration events!!
"150 years and Building" is the tagline for our Jubilee Campaign as we prepare to embark on a capital campaign to build a new monastery. May 1, 2018 will mark the 150th anniversary of our founding. During the Civil War, Richmond, VA, 'Capitol of the Confederacy," was devastated and Catholic Schools were closed. In 1868 a dedicated parish priest traveled all the way to St. Marys, PA to get Benedictine sisters to reopen his parish school and he would not leave without the promise of three sisters joining him. Thus the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia were founded in the war torn, disease-ridden South. When they arrived on May 1st, the parish was in the middle of its May Day celebration and all gathered to greet the sisters. The sisters reopened the parish school and started a "finishing" school, named St. Mary's, for young women. The first years were very difficult with cramped conditions, poor food, and rampant tuberculosis. There are thirty graves in a Richmond cemetery of very young sisters. Eventually, the "Motherhouse" was moved to Bristow at the invitation of the monks from Belmont, NC who had been given a large land grant there to educate children. Bristow was primitive farmland in the 1890's and considered a much healthier environment for the sisters. Again, three sisters arrived in Bristow on May 1st, 1894. In an unusual tale between sisters and monks, Belmont Abbey eventually decided to bring their monks home and deeded over their 1700 acres of land to our sisters! If you have done the math, you will see that we Benedictine Sisters of Virginia have a huge year of celebration ahead!! May 1st, 2018 (the 150th anniversary of our foundation) to May 1st, 2019 (our 125th anniversary of being at Bristow.)
In all of these 150 years we have remained the only motherhouse of active sisters in the State of Virginia. Designated as mission territory because of the few numbers of Catholics, there are several orders of sisters working in Virginia who come from other places - mostly "up North"! In addition to our own two schools, Saint Gertrude High School in Richmond and Linton Hall School in Bristow, we established quite a few parochial schools throughout the Richmond and Arlington Dioceses. In the 1980's and 90's we turned our attention to social needs in our area and began the Benedictine Pastoral Center for spiritual outreach, Benedictine Counseling Services for affordable mental health care, our BEACON adult literacy program which now works with 400 immigrants, and our transitional housing program for homeless moms and their children. Speaking of anniversaries, this year will be BEACON's 25th and Transitional Housing BARN's 20th! Recently, because of the huge housing boom surrounding us, we declared our grounds a "Place of Peace" and built a labyrinth, turned two old silos into open chapels with a strip of stained glass, made gardens and walkways, placed a series of peace poles in different languages, etc. All visitors are welcome from sunup to sundown.
God has been very generous to us in blessing our ministries through our community as we constantly strive to determine the needs of our neighbors and how we might use our resources. The latest turn of events has been the development of a close relationship with the local Muslim community. We were able to offer them a safe haven in our school gym for their nightly Ramadan prayers and we are supporting them at the county hearings for their proposed building of a mosque on the road behind us - a very tough fight for them.
Ours has been a 150-year history of responding to the Spirit's call and direction in the monastic tradition. Throughout these years, our sisters have dedicated themselves selflessly and we so honor and appreciate those strong women who have gone before us. As women continue to join our community, we "face forward in hope" to see what is next on our horizon!
Stay tuned for notice of the 150th anniversary celebration events!!
Sisters singing in choir