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1. Academy, the Chapel and Teresa Hall, St. Benedict's Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Date Created:
1913 - 1920
Description:
First 5O years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB). At first the college shared the facilities of the academy in Cecilia and Gertrude Halls. Cecilia Hall, built in 1881, is described in the 1926 College Bulletin: "Five dining halls with service rooms occupy the basement floor, five reception rooms the first floor, seventeen music practice rooms and five teacher's studios the second, while the third was remodeled in 1924 into a residence hall with an infirmary area. The private rooms are furnished with vanity dressers, tables and settees; each has a large private wardrobe and hot and cold water. A trained nurse is at all times in charge of the perfectly equipped infirmary. A secluded cottage (infirmary/guest house) on the campus, also in charge of a trained nurse, is used in case of contagious illness." Gertrude Hall, built in 1898, is also lauded in the 1926 College Bulletin: "In the basement is the service room fitted with the most convenient shampooing apparatus, irons, electric attachements, etc.--also cloak rooms, locker rooms, a stationery store, a confectionery store, and a kitchenette fully equipped for the serving of light lunches or 'spreads.' On the first floor are administration offices and the chemical and physical laboratories. . . On the second floor is the botanical laboratory and classrooms, well-lighted and each furnished with a special library open to the use of the students. The third floor provides airy pleasant dormitories for those who do not wish to rent private rooms." However, many of the activities of the college centered in the two new buildings, Teresa Hall and Sacred Heart Chapel, which were as up-to-date as Benedicta Arts Center and Regina Hall seem to us now - perhaps more so. Teresa Hall was the height of luxury! It had a library on 1st floor, an auditorium/study hall on 2nd floor, a rotunda (residence area) on 3rd and 4th floors (where some rooms had private baths and every bedroom had hot and cold water) and a gymnasium on the ground floor. (Gable, OSB) The chapel inspired by new architecture, very moderate baroque with its Carrara statues and Sienna marble pillars from Italy (and majestic, granite pillars from Rockville, MN), was a perfect example of its baroque type -- Newman's favorite. However, the college faculty was concerned about the later interior decorating of the chapel. In 1958, members of the art department, Sisters Johanna Becker and Jacquelyn Dubay as art consultants, helped the community restore some of the chapel's original lightness which had seemed so right in the beginning. (Gable, OSB)
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

2. Addition to St. Benedict's Industrial School, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Creator:
Hill, Eugene S.
Date Created:
1887?
Description:
Early ventures in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1880-1890). Because the government opened the contract for any number of students to attend St. Benedict's Industrial School, an addition was constructed on the west end of Marmion Hall so that the building could accommodate 150 students. When in 1896, the government dropped the contract system of Indian education, the school remained open for two more years when it was forced to close due to lack of funds. The west addition to Marmion Hall was then converted to a school for little boys (ages 6-12), often referred to as "Bethlehem School for Boys." The sisters reserved the east end of Marmion for the formation of its new members (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, page 122).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

3. Aerial view of St. Benedict's Convent and Academy campus, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Date Created:
1900?
Description:
Expansion of Monastery (1880-1909). This aerial view of St. Benedict's Convent/Academy campus (1909) shows the extent of the 40-year growth of the Benedictine community and its academy from the 1863 church/convent/school complex to this impressive campus. About five years after this photograph was taken, the addition of the spacious, copper-domed chapel and the Teresa Hall addition to the academy/college, gave St. Benedict's Convent the appearance of a full-fledged monastery with the college under its wing (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Postcards

4. Assumption School, Eden Valley, Minnesota

Creator:
Steinman, R.
Date Created:
1901 - 1902?
Description:
Schools in North-central Minnesota (1871-1909). Eden Valley was platted in 1886 when the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad Company laid their tracks through the area, Eden Valley developed rather rapidly. By 1901 three Benedictine sisters from St. Joseph went there to teach in temporary classrooms until the new parochial school was completed in 1902. Eventually the enrollment peaked at 310 with 8 sisters teaching at the Assumption School. Watkins The same year, the neighboring town of Watkins was platted along the same railroad. By 1907 the Catholic parish, St. Anthony's, in Watkins was large enough to build its own parochial school. The Benedictine sisters from St. Joseph were invited to teach there and the school soon realized an enrollment of 200 pupils. In subsequent years, the school developed to a peak of 321 students and for some years included high school classes (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, Olsenius, page 137).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

5. Convent and College joint facilities, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Date Created:
1922?
Description:
First 50 years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB). The convent-college joint facilities engendered a joint relationship that has mutually shaped these two entities. Even the daily schedule of the two was alike. The Sisters lives were intimately bound up with the academy and college students. The chief ministry of most of the Sisters living at the Motherhouse was devoted to student services. During the first fifty years of the college, 175 faculty members were Sisters--many of whom served on the faculty for 30-40 years. The convent/college facilities, and the management thereof, were shared as one until the college expanded southwestward and was physically separated from the convent. It is understandable that the public has a difficult time comprehending the reality of St. Benedict's Monastery and the College of Saint Benedict as two separate and independent corporations.
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

6. District School #34 served as both public and parochial school, St. Augusta, Minnesota

Date Created:
1890?
Description:
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). The small village of St. Augusta was settled by Germans in 1854. It was first named Berlin, then Neenah, and in 1856 named St. Augusta by Father Francis Xavier Pierz. Father Pierz was a well-known Indian missionary at Crow Wing who made the rounds on foot to St. Cloud and the neighboring German settlements, carrying only a knapsack containing everything needed for church services. In 1886 Father Pierz organized a parish and a school in St. Augusta, and Benedictine sisters from St. Joseph were invited to teach in that parish/district school. The public versus parochial school controversy did not plague the St. Augusta parishioners (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, Olsenius, page 118).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

7. Fire at St. Raphael's Hospital II, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Date Created:
1905
Description:
The upper floors of St. Raphael's Hospital II were destroyed by fire in 1905. This was the sisters' third hospital in St. Cloud. With the failure of the hospital site (St. Raphael's I) east of the Mississippi River, the sisters had again faced the burden of financing a hospital; financial aid from the city was not available. In 1900 they had built this hospital of 2+ stories, large enough for 50 patients, next to the site of the first hospital on Ninth Avenue. It was again named St. Raphael's and often referred to as St. Raphael's II. The fire gave the necessary thrust, not only to restore the upper floors, but to expand the hospital. (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, McDonald, pages 257-258).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

8. First class in the new St. Benedict's Academy, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Creator:
Saint John's Abbey (SJA), Collegeville, Minnesota
Date Created:
1882 - 1883
Description:
Early ventures in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1880-1890). About half of the student body of the academy in 1882-1883 (those in the photograph wearing medals) were prospective candidates applying for membership in the Benedictine community. Some members of this class who became sisters are identified as follows: Top row: 3. Susan (Sister Rose) Kilduff, 5. Josephine (Sister Adalberta) Gerard. Second row: 2. Margaret (Sister Eleanor) Irving. Fourth row: 1. Mary (Sister Felicitas) Knapp, 2. Margaret (Sister Ethelburga ) Farrell. Second from bottom row seated on steps: 3. Sophia (S. Ehrentrude) Wessel, 4. Mary Magdalen (S. Ursula) Hoffmann. Bottom row seated on steps: 2. Emily (Sister) Cherrier, 3. Bridget (Sister Magdalen) Walker (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

9. First class of students at St. Joseph's Academy in the Haarman Building, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Creator:
Saint John's Abbey (SJA), Collegeville, Minnesota
Date Created:
1880 - 1881
Description:
Early ventures in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1880-1890). Students and faculty of the first academy class in the Haarman Building (1880-1881) are identified as follows. Faculty upper row: Sisters 1. Flavia Pokowsky, 2. Magdelen Enste, 3. Elizabeth Will (who later became Sister Julia), 4. Bede Linnemann. Faculty - 2nd row: Sister Anotolia Langsford. Faculty - 3rd row: Sister Irminia Kretzer. Students - 2nd row: Anna Burrell, Cecilia Beck, S. Farrell, Katie Rovischer, Emma Otto, Aggie Zingerly, Rose Weiner, Carrie Capser, Iona Owens, Lilly Miller, Katherine Riesgraf, Anna Kapsner. Students - lower 3 rows: Antonette Jennings, Virgina Gerard (later Sister Anastasia), Lena Schlick, Anna Waschenberger, Mary Phillip, Ella Egan, Jennie Kennedy, Katie Loso, Aloysia Zingerly, Adela Jennings, Clara Pottgieser, Lorrina Maurin, Tillie Maurin, Lizzie Beck, Josie Kapser. Because St. Agnes Academy was not flourishing in St. Cloud, Mother Aloysia Bath and the community decided in 1879 to build a new boarding academy at St. Joseph. When the basement walls were nearly completed, the cold weather halted construction; lack of funds prevented more building for another 2 years. The next prioress, Mother Scholastica Kerst, closed the St. Agnes Academy in St. Cloud and rented the Haarman Building across from the church and convent in St. Joseph to open a select boarding academy, St. Joseph's Academy. The Haarman Building was rented for only one year. Because the school was so successful, the earlier plans for a new academy building were immediately resumed and Cecilia Hall was rapidly completed for use in 1882. When the building was blessed, St. Joseph's Academy was renamed St. Benedict's Academy (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives ; McDonald, pages 70-71, 99-100).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

10. First Holy Angels Convent, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Date Created:
1898 - 1900?
Description:
Schools in St. Cloud (1869-1909); St. Benedict's Monastery (convent), St. Joseph, Minnesota. The exact location of the convent in this photograph is not recorded, but the Holy Angels Parish records show that it took 25 years for the parish to build a convent for the sisters who taught in Holy Angels Grade School in St. Cloud. "The sisters moved around like nomads. For the first 11 or 12 years, they lived in St. Mary's Convent near the site of the old post office. Then they lived in Captain Taylor's house on Seventh Avenue North for one year; next the Grundman house on Eighth Avenue North and in the (St. Clotilde's) Music Academy. They also lived for a while in the Munsinger Hotel" (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, Voigt, page 54).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

11. First school at St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake, Minnesota

Date Created:
1890
Description:
St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Nation). The Benedictine monks and sisters were preceded in the Red Lake mission by Fathers Francis Xavier Pierz and Lawrence Lautischar. These two missionaries had founded the mission in the 1850s and Father Lautischar remained there as its first pastor. After his untimely death in a snowstorm, Father Lawrence was succeeded by Father Ignatius Tomazin, the Yugoslav missionary who was removed from White Earth for antagonizing government agents at that reservation in1878. In 1883, his zeal for the rights of the American Indians once again brought the soldiers from Fort Snelling to the reservation to remove him. For the next five years, the Red Lake mission was without a priest. In 1888, when the Drexel sisters* paid a visit to the reservation and heard the Ojibwe's plea for priests and sisters, Katherine begged the abbot of St. John's Abbey to take over the mission. She offered to pay the traveling expenses and to rent temporary buildings for them. The following year in November 1889, two priests, Fathers Simon Lampe and Thomas Borgerding from St. John's Abbey and Sisters Amalia Eich and Evangelista McNulty from St. Benedict's Convent made the arduous trip to Red Lake; the last lap from White Earth to Red Lake was by lumber wagons. St. Mary's Mission in Red Lake began in some empty buildings on the reservation. The sisters converted an abandoned Hudson Bay Company's warehouse into a school. In spite of its poor condition, the school opened with an enrollment of 25 day pupils. Years later when Sister Amalia was asked how they kept warm in that drafty house, she replied that they didn't keep warm; they froze. The next spring they took in 27 boarding pupils in addition to the day students. St. Benedict's sent two more sisters and a candidate to help. The candidate, Jane Horn, who later became Sister Marciana, was a former pupil of the sisters at White Earth. She was a helpful bridge for building understanding between the missionaries and the Ojibwe at Red Lake. (*Katherine Drexel and her two sisters, daughters of a wealthy banker in Philadelphia, engaged in charity for the American Indian and African American missions.) [SBMA McDonald, pp. 246-249 Sister Owen Lindblad, OSB, FULL OF FAIR HOPE: A History of St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake, (Park Press Quality Printing, Inc., Waite Park, MN, 1997), pp. 15-17, 34-39]
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

12. Gertrude Hall addition, St. Benedict's Academy , St. Joseph, Minnesota

Date Created:
1904
Description:
St. Benedict's Academy (1883-1909). By the end of the 19th century, another large wing (Gertrude Hall) was added to St. Benedict's Academy. The academy had been incorporated with the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict in 1887. It was one of the oldest secondary schools in Minnesota and one of the few Catholic "finishing schools" in the 1880s unique in its contribution to education in Minnesota's rural areas. The academy was well accepted because the concept of a convent boarding school was familiar to the early pioneers from Germany where the Benedictine sisters taught schools within the confines of their convent enclosures. The academy courses outlined in the catalogue, very similar to those offered in today's secondary schools, included Elocution, Algebra, Church History, Religion, Physical Geography, Ancient History, Hygiene, Rhetoric, Music and Art. Some textbooks used, still preserved in St. Benedict's Archives, include: Dr. Joseph Martindale's, First Lessons in Natural Philosophy, published by Elredge Brother of Philadelphia in 1879 (for science classes); J. C. Smith's history book published by J. B. Lippincott and Co., Philadelphia; and A. S. Barnes' GENERAL HISTORY, 1883. St. Benedict's Academy lost its position as the only finishing school in its territory in the 1890s. However, the academy can take credit for giving birth to the College of St. Benedict. By 1909 plans were underway to add college courses to the academy curriculum. In 1914 the College of St. Benedict was established -- one of the few women's colleges in Minnesota. It is unique in its cooperation with the men's St. John's University in Collegeville located a few miles from St. Joseph (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald pages 100-108; Sister Grace McDonald, "A Finishing School in the 1880s," Minnesota History, June 1946).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

13. Historic Building purchased for St. Mary's Convent, Stillwater, Minnesota

Date Created:
1907?
Description:
Schools in south-central Minnesota (1876-1909). By 1850, Stillwater, which owes its existence to the building of Fort Snelling in 1819, became the lumbering capital of the St. Croix River region. This soon brought pioneer settlers to the area. Though not the first white settlement in Minnesota, Stillwater claims the title, "Birthplace of Minnesota," because it was at this site that a convention was held to organize the Territory of Minnesota in 1848. The wealthy lumbermen built lavish homes such as those they had built before in the New England States. To this day, Stillwater maintains a characteristic historical atmosphere. One of these historic buildings was purchased by St. Mary's Parish in 1907 to be used as the convent for the four Benedictine sisters from St. Joseph, MN, who were teaching in the German parish school, St. Mary's (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; Shifra Stein's Day Trips: Gas-saving Getaways Less Than Two Hours from Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul, page 105
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

14. Holy Angels Grade School, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Date Created:
1900?
Description:
Schools in St. Cloud (1869-1909); St. Benedict's Monastery (convent), St. Joseph, Minnesota. Holy Angels Grade School opened in 1887 with an enrollment of 160 pupils; by 1894, it had an enrollment of 400. By 1880, St. Cloud's population had risen to 2,464 and included other nationalities, such as the Scots, Swedes and Poles. Holy Angels became the parish for all English-speaking Catholics; the German Catholics preferred St. Mary's and at the turn of the century, the Polish-speaking Catholics established their own parish, St. John Cantius (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; Robert J. Voigt, Holy Angels in St. Cloud, pages 21-24).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

15. Melrose: St. Boniface Church, Convent and School, Melrose, Minnesota

Creator:
Saint John's Abbey (SJA), Collegeville, Minnesota
Date Created:
1890 - 1900
Description:
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). Melrose was settled at a ford in the river on the stagecoach trail between the Red River Valley and St. Cloud. It got its spurt of growth in 1871 as the terminus of the west-bound railroad, making it a marketing center. Melrose (named after Melissa Rose, the daughter of one of the early settlers) soon developed into a strong Catholic community eager to establish its own parish. In 1880, St. Boniface School (parish/district) was built and the Benedictine sisters responded to the pastor's invitation to teach there. By 1894, four sisters were teaching 170 pupils, despite the fact that at first they suffered from the usual prejudice of German communities regarding public versus parochial schools. In subsequent years, the enrollment peaked at 325 pupils even though the Irish parishioners established their own grade/high school and enrolled as many as 166 pupils. When St. Boniface and St. Patrick parishes merged in 1958, the parish and school were renamed St. Mary's School which reached a peak enrollment of 481 (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

16. Power Plant, Laundry, Windmill, St. Benedict's Convent, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Date Created:
1880 - 1889
Description:
Expansion of Monastery (1880-1909). As was the custom of Benedictine houses in the Old World, the sisters, from their beginnings in America, tried to be self-supporting. They maintained a farm, gardens, orchard, vineyard, chickens, turkeys, and bees. The laundry was an important service, not only for the sisters, orphans, and academy, but also for the monks of St. John's Abbey for whom the sisters did the washing and sewing. The first water works, a wooden water tank built in 1892, was a great boon to sisters who worked in the laundry. In 1899 an underground sewer was dug. New developments were soon added to meet the needs of the growing population on St. Benedict's campus and to help supply the village of St. Joseph. These developments included the first power plant and electric light plant (1906), a 60,000 gallon water tower (1907), and a large well in 1909 (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

17. Sisters and pupils at Holy Angels School, Browerville, Minnesota

Date Created:
1893
Description:
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). In 1892, two sisters (Adela Eich and Casimir Pietron) and a candidate (Miss Rose Carlin - later Sister Josephine) opened a mission in St. Joseph's Parish in Browerville. The parish had built a parochial school, named Holy Angels, consisting of three classrooms and living quarters for sisters. When dissension arose between the Polish and German parishioners that resulted in the establishment of a German parish (St. Peter's), a sister from Holy Angels School taught the German pupils in a rented store. In 1902, when the Germans built their own church, St. Peter's, the school was moved to the church basement. Both schools expanded and prospered, but were eventually consolidated and named Browerville Parochial School, later renamed Christ the King (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

18. Sisters and pupils at St. Henry's School, Perham, Minnesota

Creator:
Wetzel, Conrad Jr.
Date Created:
1880?
Description:
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). Perham marks the beginning of the Lake Park region of Minnesota. In 1873 the town was platted by the Lake Superior and Puget Sound Land Company and named after Josiah Perham, the first president of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The early businesses were the Glove Milling company and the Schmidt Wagon Works. Within ten years the Catholic community developed a school system, at one time having the three following Catholic schools in the area: 1.) St. Henry's - the Benedictine sisters opened a school in a section of the convent but when the enrollment increased, the former public school and a harness shop were utilized; enrollment there reached a peak of 269 pupils with 5-6 sisters teaching in subsequent years. 2.) St. Joseph - the Benedictine sisters began teaching in a district school (Ottertail County), three miles from Perham. (In 1885 St. Benedict's Convent built a large dwelling there intended to serve as a sisters' health resort; instead, it became the residence for the 5 sisters at St. Joseph's School. The dwelling was later sold for $1,100.) 3.) St. Stanislaus - in 1902, the Benedictine sisters from St. Joseph's also staffed this small school but three years later it closed because only 38 students enrolled. However, the pastor reopened it seven years later and the Polish-speaking Felician sisters staffed it for another twenty years (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

19. Sisters Demetrius Keller and Catherine Siefner teaching at St. Mary's School, Long Prairie, Minnesota

Date Created:
1896?
Description:
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). As early as 1880, three sisters took charge of the parish school in Long Prairie, but within four years the sisters withdrew because of misunderstandings with the pastor. Ten years later, the sisters re-opened the mission and the school's subsequent enrollments grew to 280. Pictured are S. Demetria Keller (on left) and Catherine Siefner (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

20. St. Alexius Hospital, Bismarck, North Dakota

Creator:
Saint John's Abbey (SJA), Collegeville, Minnesota
Date Created:
1888 - 1915
Description:
As early as 1878 while prospecting for a site to establish a college for men in the Dakota Territory, Abbot Alexius Edelbrock, OSB, became aware of the need for a hospital in the still undeveloped area of Mandan and Bismarck. In 1885 he bought the Lamborn Hotel in Bismarck and succeeded in interesting Mother Scholastica Kerst in converting it to a hospital. It was a challenge to change the settlers' prejudice against hospitals as institutions for the wayward and shiftless. However, after five years and with the expertise of Dr. E. pageQuaine in surgery and Sister Boniface Timmers, OSB, in administration, the hospital gained favor and grew from a primitive institution to one of the finest hospitals in the land. With the help of a donation from St. John's Abbey, the Benedictine sisters were able to repay the abbey for the debt incurred by the original purchase and they named the hospital St. Alexius. By 1913, they were able to build a new hospital and to organize a school of nursing there (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 126-137).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

21. St. Benedict's Convent and Academy (Cecilia, Benedict, and Scholastica Halls), St. Joseph, Minnesota

Creator:
Hill, Eugene S.
Date Created:
1892
Description:
Expansion of Monastery (1880-1909). From 1882 to 1890 the membership of the Benedictine community at St. Joseph grew to almost 300 professed sisters. The enrollment in St. Benedict's Academy increased to 213 (132 grade school girls and boys and 81 high school girls). Therefore, the sisters added wings to Cecilia Hall (built in 1881-1882) as follows: Benedict Hall in 1883; Scholastica Hall in 1892; Gertrude Hall in 1898. Several factors accounted for this rapid growth: with larger enrollments in the academy, the number of candidates entering the religious community increased; as the Church became more stable when the Northwest Territory was organized as a Vicariate in 1875 and as the St. Cloud Diocese was established in 1889, more parishes developed throughout north central Minnesota; and as sisters went out to teach in more and more schools, the number of candidates from parishes increased. The religious community became more stable and accepted. By 1909, within its first 52 years, the membership grew to 452, and in the next 45 years, St. Benedict's Convent reached its peak membership of 1,278. (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

22. St. Benedict's Convent and Academy, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Date Created:
1914?
Description:
First 50 years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB). The Sisters of St. Benedict opened a boarding academy (grade and high school levels) in St. Joseph, Minnesota in 1880. By the early 1900s, it was well established and thriving, with over 200 pupils.
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

23. St. Benedict's Hospital, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Date Created:
1885
Description:
In the early 1880s, several attempts were made in St. Cloud to meet the growing need of provisions for medical care. Dr. A.C. Lamothe Ramsay, lately graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago, began practice in St. Cloud in 1882. He and the sisters petitioned the city council for funds to help them erect a three-story hospital. When these funds for a hospital were not forthcoming, Dr. Ramsay, in 1885, opened one on his own in Joseph Pendel's newly constructed home. Because he soon found that he could not run his own hospital and at the same time take care of his regular practice, Dr. Ramsay persuaded the sisters to take over hospital work. The community, under the leadership of Mother Scholastica Kerst, was quick to take up the challenge. At first they decided to add a third floor and renovate St. Agnes Academy in St. Cloud (which had closed in 1880) to refit it for hospital use. However, in December, 1885, the sisters purchased a newly erected building on Ninth Avenue from John Kropp for $2,000 and by February announced the opening of the hospital under the name of St. Benedict's Hospital (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 251-254).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

24. St. Benedict's Industrial School for girls, St. Joseph, Minnesota

Creator:
Saint John's Abbey (SJA), Collegeville, Minnesota
Date Created:
1886
Description:
Early ventures in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1880-1890). After a fire in April of 1886 destroyed the church and school complex that had housed the Industrial School, the sisters temporarily provided room and board in the convent. Immediately, the construction of Marmion Hall, the new Industrial School, was begun between the St. Joseph Church and St. Benedict's Convent/Academy. It was ready for the fall term of 1886 for girls from White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Because of the new quarters and the inspector's good report of the St. Benedict's Industrial School, the Indian Commissioner subsequently expanded the contract permitting the sisters to take any number of pupils and to draw them from any Indian reservation. However, even though the enrollment in the school increased to 100, only 25 were paid for by the government (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs

25. St. Bernard's Church and School (front right of church), St. Paul, Minnesota

Date Created:
1890?
Description:
Schools in south-central Minnesota (1876-1909). By 1890, St. Bernard's Parish, clustered around Rice Street in St. Paul, furnished a combination church and school for 220 pupils. Three Benedictine sisters opened a mission there. With frequent additions and finally a new school, St. Bernard's became the largest grade school staffed by the Benedictine sisters -- eventually having an enrollment of 1,280 students (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Contributing Institution:
Saint Benedict's Monastery
Type:
Still Image
Format:
Black-and-white photographs
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