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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. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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
13. St. Joseph's School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1882
- Description:
- Schools in south-central Minnesota (1876-1909). In 1875, St. Joseph's parish, situated in the heart of Minneapolis, opened a small school for 50 pupils under the care of the Sisters of Charity. The following year, because of an expected increase in enrollment, the Benedictine Sisters from St. Joseph, MN, were asked to assume charge of the school. By 1882, a large new parish school was built. Within 30 years, the enrollment increased to 400 with 8 sisters teaching (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
14. St. Martin Church and Rectory, St. Martin, Minnesota
- Creator:
- Saint John's Abbey (SJA), Collegeville, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1891
- Description:
- Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). This "cathedral on the prairie," like so many other churches dotting the landscape of Stearns County (sometimes referred to as "Little Germany") was reminiscent of the churches in the Old World. St. Martin's Parish first built the rectory (1875) and eleven years later built this church. They did not build a parochial school at this time, but, like most other German communities, invited the Benedictine sisters in 1877 to teach in the district school at St. Martin. The ensuing conflict so rocked the small Catholic community that the sisters chose to withdraw in 1891. After a sixty-year lapse of time, the parish built a parochial school for 212 pupils and the Benedictine sisters returned to teach there. It is most unusual that, despite the turmoil of the early history of St. Martin, fourty-four young women from St. Martin's Parish joined the Benedictine community in St. Joseph (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
15. St. Mary's Church and St. Mary's School built on the shores of Lake George, St. Cloud, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1864 - 1887
- Description:
- Schools in St. Cloud (1869-1909). By 1860, St. Cloud had expanded from its four homes in 1854 to 1,651 citizens. The 1856 church/school/convent was no longer adequate. In 1864, St. Mary's parishioners built a new church on the shores of Lake George. The large Gothic-style church served the parish for almost 60 years . When it was destroyed by fire, another church, the present St. Mary's Cathedral, was built. St. Mary's Parish eventually solved the school controversy by building its own parochial school. The first one in 1887 was a one-story frame building to accommodate 180 pupils. In 1896, a large parochial school, still in use today, was built next to St. Mary's Church (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives ; Witte, pages 10-11, 17; Dominik, John, J. pages 12-14, 20).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
16. St. Paul's School and Parish celebrating a first communion class, Sauk Centre, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1900?
- Description:
- Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). Considered the midpoint between Lake Osakis and Sauk Rapids, Sauk Centre grew around a store built in 1861. Soon railroads linked the town with Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud and Manitoba. The settlers built a new parochial school in 1896. It was one of the largest buildings in Sauk Centre -- a three-story structure with classrooms and a music room on the first two floors, living quarters for three Benedictine sisters on third floor and a full basement for parish meetings and activities. A first communion event (see photo) was always celebrated by the entire parish in German communities (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
17. St. Wendelin's School, Luxemburg, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1885?
- Description:
- Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). In 1881, the Benedictine sisters began teaching in the parish/district school in Luxemberg, averaging 90-100 pupils for a number of years and increasing to 140 as its peak enrollment. In subsequent years the enrollment stabilized to around 100 pupils. The parish continues to support its Catholic school and the Benedictine sisters who have served there for 124 years (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
18. Teachers and pupils at the church, Pierz, Minnesota
- Date Created:
- 1881?
- Description:
- Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). The first log school, though built by the parishioners, was supported by government funds and was, therefore, also the district school for Pierz. By 1889, the public versus parochial school controversy demanded a clarification of schools. The parishioners then claimed the school they had built as their St. Edward's Parochial School. Later, the second floor of the school was opened as a high school. The school was then renamed St. Joseph's School (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
- Contributing Institution:
- Saint Benedict's Monastery
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- Black-and-white photographs
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