Volume 28, Number 3, October 1998 RICHARDTON, ND 58652
Olivetan Congregation
Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey Pecos, NM
Counting in the 1995 Catalogus of monastics and monasteries, one can discover the fairly useless fact that there are no fewer than twenty-one separate and distinct congregations of Benedictine monks which make up the Benedictine Confederation. More than half-a-dozen of these are represented in the United States, and perhaps the least well known is the Congregation of Our Lady of Monte Oliveto, or the Olivetan Congregation. There are five Olivetan houses in the United States, found in New Mexico (Pecos), Arizona (St. David), Hawaii (Waialua), Louisiana (Opelousas) and California (San Luis Obispo). Since the congregation is so little known in the U.S., perhaps we will be forgiven for offering a few facts which may be of interest to monks and sisters of other congregations.
Blessed Bernard Tolomei and two companions, experiencing a similar disenchantment with the world of the early fourteenth century as Benedict had in the sixth, retreated from the great Italian Renaissance city of Siena into the wilderness of Acciano, about thirty miles distant. Here in a cave, Bernardo, a much respected professor of law from a famous Sienese family of the city, and Patrizio and Ambrogio, successful young businessmen from other well-to-do families of the city, began to live a monastic life of great austerity and poverty. They were rapidly joined by other young men of like mind.
Within six years, with the approval of the Bishop of Arezzo in whose diocese they were, a new religious family following the Rule of Benedict was clearly emerging. Legend has it that Blessed Bernard and the Bishop of Arezzo had the same dream on the same night, of Our Lady presenting Bernard with a Benedictine habit, white in her honor. What is certain is that Bernard Tolomei had a great devotion to the more famous Bernard of Clairvaux and also to St. Dominic, both of whose followers wore white, and the Olivetan Benedictines have themselves worn a white habit from their beginnings. Blessed Bernard and the new community continued to live at Acciano, now called "Monte Oliveto" or "Mount Olivet," and many new houses were established. In 1348, when the Black Death reached Siena and the surrounding countryside, Bernard led his monks back into the city to nurse the sick and dying, and he and no fewer than seventy of his monks contracted the plague and themselves died of the disease.
In spite of all this (perhaps because of it?) the Olivetans flourished; there were more than a thousand in Italy in the century following the founder's death, and paintings from the period bear witness to the widespread presence of the new "white monks." The year 1998 marks the 650th year since the death of Blessed Bernard, and is a year of General Chapter for the congregation worldwide. Abbeys and priories of the Olivetan Congregation today include the ancient abbey of La Bec in Normandy, reoccupied in 1948; Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem; Kyung Nam in South Korea; Monte Oliveto near Sao Paulo in Brazil; and, on the old Roman Forum, Santa Maria Nova, more famously known as Santa Francesca Romana.
The abbey of Pecos and the other American communities joined the Olivetan Congregation in the mid-1980s because of the Olivetan tradition of double communities, dating from the time St. Frances of Rome in the fifteenth century. This remarkable woman, bride, mother and widow, gathered about her several other women who were seeking the Lord at Rome's Torre de Specchi and sought affiliation with the monks of Monte Oliveto. There are now nearly fifteen houses of Olivetan nuns or sisters around the world, three of which are Monastic Oblate Sisters in the tradition of Frances of Rome. All these sisters are bound to the Olivetan Congregation in varying degrees of affiliation.
The sisters in the American communities are receiving much help in their own monastic journey from the mother house at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, and have recently warmly welcomed at Pecos Sister Marie Ruth from the Olivetan Monastery of the Resurrection near Jerusalem. Sister Ruth will be working with the sisters at Pecos as they draw up their own constitutions, based on that of the Jerusalem sisters. For us here this is the road to their becoming Monastic Oblate Sisters in the tradition of St. Frances of Rome.
The monks and sisters at Pecos are delighted to welcome visitors at all times, especially visiting monastics. They would like their American brothers and sisters in the various congregations throughout the country to know their little story too, and perhaps get the feel for a different Benedictine tradition coming out of a non-Germanic culture. They believe they are uniquely placed to offer something of their rich and old monastic history to the more widely known congregations with their own unique and beautiful histories, and look forward to many fruitful exchanges.
Michael Leek, OSB
Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey
Pecos, NM
Mother of God Monastery
Watertown, SD
In June 1993 our auditor stood in front of our chapter and said, "Ladies, to put it bluntly, you're running out of money!" To whom was he speaking? We are a community of eighty women whose common history began in 1961 when we branched from Sacred Heart Monastery, Yankton. Since 1967 we have been living in a building encompassing about 90,000 square feet, constructed as a girls' boarding high school. The structure provided much public space: classrooms, large kitchen, long halls and bedrooms in a dormitory.
We struggled to finance both our community's needs and to maintain part of the large school building as a monastery. Building use evolved from high school to educational center, with expanded activities like retreats and workshops. These activities inadequately employed the building's enormous space and the monastery could not create the needed environment for community living. We continued to age as a community. Fewer dollars were coming in. The long halls got longer and the bills increased. So, along with our auditor telling us we were spending our retirement funds by remaining in the school building, we knew we needed a monastic home built for our needs.
We decided to build. But what to do in the meantime? We had thirty employees who assisted us with the operation of the monastery/center. There were thirty-five sisters who lived at the monastery, many in the various works of the community, some semi-retired and several needing assistance with daily living.
Sister Sandra, prioress, and her assistants considered all of the circumstances: terminating the employees, moving out of the Harmony Hill building, obtaining temporary housing for our sisters who would need to move, and determining a place for monastery administration. We decided to keep administration of the monastery in the Harmony Hill building and terminated the thirty employees, giving them a one-year notice. The sisters were given temporary housing choices.
Sister Sandra met with those who needed assistance. Accommodations were obtained with our communities in Pierre at the hospital and at St. Joseph Convent. Several sisters, including those who needed assistance with daily living, moved to Pierre. One sister moved to Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton and another to Elkton, SD, joining a community member who was ministering there. Eight sisters went to Gettysburg beginning a new community mission. Gettysburg has a hospital previously staffed by Franciscan sisters. Above the hospital was an empty convent which the administrator offered to us as temporary housing.
Twelve of us stayed in Watertown to take care of monastery needs and minister in the city. Those of us remaining in Watertown lived in three different houses: Hesed and Dayspring on the monastery property, and Pelican House. We had purchased the Lake Pelican residence when we knew we would be needing "extra beds."
Letting go of the Harmony Hill building and pilgrimaging to Pierre, Gettysburg and Yankton required both spiritual and physical preparation. During our last summer in the building, 1995, we began the long and painful process of moving. We ritually moved through the building for the last time as a community, remembering, expressing gratitude and telling stories about our life together in that holy place. Sisters who had experienced only this building as home were advised to take all their personal belongings since we were moving out of Harmony Hill. One of the sisters said, "I was embarrassed when I saw all those things being unloaded from the truck!" Another said, "I'm not bringing all this back to the monastery when we move back."
Living in new surroundings with different people provided many opportunities for living community. New relationships were formed and adjustments to small group living were made. Skills like cooking and turning a house into a home were learned or renewed. The stories go on and on.
For those of us working at Harmony Hill during the day and going to various houses in the evening for meals and sleeping, there were added adjustments. We were now working in a large building which in the past months had at least seventy to eighty people in it on a daily basis and now had ten to twenty. The large building with its long halls was at times depressing. It took a different kind of energy to get through the day. Energy, which in the past came from being with people, now had to come from different sources such as memories and watching a new building take shape.
Yes, across the street our new monastery was being born. What had been a dream was now becoming a reality. Starting in August 1995, the builders assured us that in twelve to sixteen months our new home would be finished. Well, after twenty-one months, many meetings and renegotiations, twenty-four sisters moved into the new monastery on May 5, 1997.
It was an anxious and exciting time. A new living and working arrangement was structured. We decided to try living in our new home without lay employees. We do our own cooking and cleaning and take care of any special living needs a sister may have. More adjustments! No one sister "in charge" of the kitchen, no sister as sacristan or guest director. We all, including the prioress, take turns one week each month doing liturgy, food service, hospitality and housekeeping.
May 5 marked the first year of occupancy of our new home. Sister Mary-Lambert hosted a pizza party for supper that night. She asked us to say one thing we like about the monastery. As we listened we discovered there is a very wide range of things that we like about living in the new facility. Sister Vivian, our oldest active member, closed the discussion with, "The best thing about living in the new monastery is the bathroom off our bedrooms. We can get to it easily." The building is becoming our monastic home.
Adel Sautner, OSB
Mother of God Monastery
110 28th Ave. SE
Watertown, SD 57201