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1. First upper-midwest Benedictine convent succinctly in John Tenvoorde's boarding house (far left), St. Germain and 5th Avenue, St. Cloud, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1857?
- Description:
- Early years in St. Cloud (1857-1863). The six Benedictine women (4 sisters and 2 candidates) arrived in St. Cloud from St. Marys, Pennsylvania, earlier than expected; no convent had been prepared for them. John Tenvoorde's boarding house and entertainment hall (on the far left) was rented for ten months as the first convent in the Midwest frontier. Describing this convent, Prior Demetrius di Marogna, OSB, pastor of the German settlers in St. Cloud, wrote: "The house has two rooms and a spacious refectory with a built-on kitchen and above the refectory, a long attic room where ten or twelve school children's beds can easily be placed. Well, garden, and cellar are in the enclosure. But the rent for the year is $250.00...that price is cheap for here." (McDonald, page29) ..In this temporary abode, the sisters took in 6 boarders, and taught music, art, needlework, English, German, and religion to Catholics and non-Catholics in the neighborhood. The following year they were able to move to the renovated St. Mary's Church and Convent (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 27-34).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Drawings (visual works)
2. North Star, the riverboat which brought the Benedictine sisters to St. Cloud, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1857?
- Description:
- Early years in St. Cloud (1857-1863). Mother Willibalda Scherbauer and her companions traveled from St. Marys, Pennsylvania by rail and wagon to Pittsburgh; by river boats on the Ohio River to St. Louis and on the Mississippi River with a stop-over in St. Paul; finally reaching St. Cloud. However, the riverboat, "North Star" was stranded on a sand bar two miles from St. Cloud. After two days, on July 4, 1857, the sisters were taken ashore in small boats. They stopped at the Benedictine monks' college in St. Cloud to enjoy their first meal after three days on the boat without food as they could not afford the price of a meal (50 cents). Then the monks took the sisters to their destination, St. Mary's Parish in the German settlement of Middle St. Cloud. The whole area was desolate having been ravaged by a grasshopper plague. The resulting food shortage and the extreme cold tested the endurance of the sisters during their first years in St. Cloud (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 20-27).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
3. St. Walburg Convent, Eichstätt, Bavaria, Germany
- Date Created:
- 1852 - 1864
- Description:
- Origins of St. Benedict's Monastery (convent), St. Joseph, Minnesota. From its beginnings in the eleventh century, St. Walburg Convent in Eichstätt, Bavaria, survived many trials of fire, war, famine, and secularization. "Fortunately for America, when the call came to plant a branch house in the new soil of the New World, the religious spirit of St. Walburg Convent was at its height." (McDonald, page 7). In 1851 St. Walburg Convent, EichstÃtt, Bavaria, was challenged by an invitation from Boniface Wimmer, OSB, (a missionary monk from Bavaria in America as early as 1846) to go to America to teach the children of the German immigrants. On June 18, 1852, Sister Benedicta Riepp with Sisters Walburga Dietrich and Maura Flieger blazed the trail for the Eichstätt sisters to the New World by way of the steamer, "Washington." They reached New York amid the confusion of fire crackers and shooting cannons for the July 4th celebrations. Undaunted, they traveled on to settle in St. Marys, PA. New members soon joined them. With the second group (3 nuns and one candidate) from Eichstätt, they were ready to establish other convents in frontier settlements, among them the Northwest Territory in the area which later became the state of Minnesota. In summary, the origin of St. Benedict's Convent, St. Joseph, MN, can be traced as follows: in 1852, the Bavarian branch of Benedictine Sisters who came to America first settled in St. Joseph's Convent, St. Marys, PA.; in 1857, a small group of sisters from St. Joseph's Convent (PA) ventured to the western frontier -- to St. Mary's Parish, St. Cloud, MN; in 1863, the St. Cloud group of sisters moved to St. Joseph, MN. In St. Joseph, they established St. Benedict's Monastery which became the largest Benedictine monastery in the world. (Early records refer to St. Benedict's Monastery as St. Benedict's Convent.) [St. Benedict's Monastery Archives (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; Sister Grace McDonald, OSB, With Lamps Burning, pages 7-10).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
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