BRIEF HISTORY
of
The Contemplative
Sisters of the Precious Blood
Now Called:
Contemplative
Sisters of the
Indwelling Trinity
Our Lady of the Nativity
Monastery
New Riegel, Ohio 44853, USA
Our Lady
of the Nativity Monastery, New Riegel, Ohio, 44853, USA, was established
in 1956 and now numbers seven members. This Contemplative group us a section of the Sisters of the
Precious Blood, a pontifical Congregation, whose generalete is
located at 4000 Denlinger Road. Dayton, Ohio 45426,
USA, whose total number of members is 525.
In
August of 1954 at the General Chapter the Most Reverend Archbishop Karl J. Alter spoke at length to the assembled delegates
regarding the advisability of establishing a cloistered house within the
Congregation. Having received the Archbishop's words of encouragement for the project, the delegates voted
almost unanimously in favor or such a contemplative branch. For over twenty
years prior to the Chapter's vote of approval, Sister Mary Florecita Bidart had
carried on the work of preparation for such a house within the Congregation, in
the face of numerous trials, obstacles, frustrations and
misunderstandings.
In
December of 1954 permission was granted by the Most Reverend Bishop George
J. Rehring to establish the Cloistered branch within the Diocese of Toledo at
New Riegel, Ohio. The New Riegel Convent was selected for the Contemplative
branch house because the convent was situated in a secluded county site far
removed from the noise of city life.
The New
Riegel Convent, formerly the Motherhouse of the Congregation, was in an
extremely dilapidated condition and condemned by the Bishop as living quarters
for the Sisters when the Mother General of the Congregation, Mother Mary
Aquinas, told Sister Florecita that she could have the building for the
Contemplative group provided she would be able to remodel the convent and assume
the responsibility
for expenses incurred. After consulting a structural engineer who confirmed
that the building was structurally sound, the remodeling was begun. In addition
to her full time job as a teacher, Sister Florecita had to solicit the
necessary donations for remodeling, which she did with the support and approval
of the Most Reverend Archbishop Paul F. Leibold of Cincinnati, Ohio. Much hard
work and many solicitations went into preparing the building. All of this was
done without help, financial or otherwise, from the Congregation.
By June
of 1956 the Cloister section of the building was ready for occupancy. Sister M.
'Florecita and Sister M. Leo (Mary Louise) Voisard began living the Cloistered
life on August 22, 1957, but It was not until July 1, 1957 that the Cloister was solemnly and formally enclosed by Bishop Rehring. Within a year the two Sisters received a
third member, Sister Mary Ephrem (Mildred Marie) Neuzil.
In 1960
canonical approval of the Cloistered Branch was procured and by April 1. 1965, canonical approval
of the Constitutions for that way of life was obtained from the Holy See. In
September of 1965 the Holy See granted its permission to erect a novitiate
within the Cloister, thus broadening the possible base of its membership to include interested women from outside
the active
Congregation who felt called to live the contemplative way of life.
In
September, 1965, Sister Joseph Therese
Fuller became the fourth member of the Cloistered group,
and in February or 1967, two more members, Sisters Virginia
Manss and Mildred Elaine Decker, were admitted. Sister Shirley
(Miriam Joseph) Wishoski transferred from the active
Congregation over to the Contemplative section in July of 1969. In December of
1977, Miss Janet Wieging, a thirty-four year old lay
woman, had been accepted as candidate for the Contemplative branch.
From the
very beginning the Sisters have endeavored to support themselves in their way
of life. Through owning and operating a print shop they succeeded in becoming entirely
self-supporting.
The Sisters'
way of life, as a ministry of prayer, is centered around
their daily common celebration of the sacred liturgy of the Eucharist and the
liturgy of the hours. Each day the Sisters are provided with at least two hours for mental prayer and one
half hour for spiritual reading. These periods of prayer throughout the day
along with the spirit of silence, solitude and charity that pervades their life
together, have fostered their growth in the life of the Spirit down through the
years since their foundation.
The year
before Mother Aquinas came into office, Mother Nathalia had quietly remodeled
part of the second floor of the old convent at Maria Stein for a cloister. In the event that she was not re-elected, she
planned to start a cloister there.
There
was a lot of campaigning that year around the mother house especially, as to whom should be
put into office. People were taking sides - some in Mother Nathalia's
camp, some in Mother Aquinas' camp and others in other nominees' camps. Months before
the actual election Sister Florecita was pretty certain that Mother Aquinas
would be elected so she decided she would approach her and reveal to her her plans for beginning a cloister within the Community in order to see how she felt about it. Mother Aquinas
was quite favorably
impressed with the idea and with the draft of the proposed statutes that Sister
Florecita showed her. She said she wou1d back having such a cloister within the
Congregation 100% of the way.
Sister
Florecita had been working on this project for many years prior to this.
One summer while she was at the mother house, Archbishop McNicholas happened to be there for a few days and
she approached him while he was in chapel praying and asked if she could speak
with him. Through Father Roy who "Was chaplain at the mother house, a
meeting was arranged in the chaplain's quarters and Sister Florecita told the
Archbishop of her plan for having a
cloistered branch in the Congregation. The Archbishop gave his support for such
a project. Sister Florecita met Mother Magna as she left the chaplain's
quarters and promptly received a bawling out for having the meeting. Another
time later, when Sister Florecita was stationed at St. Margaret
Mary in College
Hill, Archbishop McNicholas, feel that a letter might
not reach its destination unopened, had Monsignor Markham deliver a message
concerning the cloister orally to Sister. The Sisters at the convent
misunderstood the monsignor’s visit to the convent to see only Sister Florecita
– that she was complaining about them and this made it difficult for her with
the Sisters for the rest of her time there (she was not free yet to explain her
work on the cloister.)
Another
person who was of great help with the beg1nning stages of the cloister was
Bishop Marling. Just one day after he
was made a bishop, being in Cartheg, be visited the
Sisters in Celina. Sister Florecita was there at the time, and this was the
first opportunity that she and the bishop had to meet each other. Previously when Sister Florecita had spoken
to Father Roy about the cloister, Father Boy had recommended that Sister
consult with Father Marling for assistance from him. At that time no contact was made, but the day
after Father Marling became Bishop Marling there many occasions from then on
that allowed for consultation with him. And as a bishop, Bishop Marllng was in a position to be of considerable help.
When
Bishop Marling was the auxiliary bishop of Kansas City and Sister Flore was
stationed in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the bishop called Sister Wilhemina,
the superior of the Fort Wayne convent, to let her know that he was coming to speak with
Sister Florec1ta. When he arrived at the
Several
times when Sister Florecita was at St. Mary's in Dayton, Ohio, directing the
Catholic Information Center, Bishop Marling would stop in to talk and give
Sister advise.
Sister
Florecita had attempted to get the proposal for a cloister put on the agenda of
three previous Chapters of the Congregation (over a span of eighteen years)
prior to the one in which Mother Aquinas was elected, all to no avail, as the
press of other business pushed the proposal off of the Agenda. Finally, at the
Chapter at which Mother Aquinas was elected, an appeal was made to Bishop
Liebold (who also strongly supported the project) as to what should be done. He
suggested writing a letter to Archbishop Karl Alter (which he composed for
Sister Florecita) asking the Archbishop to personally address the assembled
delegates and encourage the establishment of such a cloister within the
Congregation. The Archbishop consented and, after hearing his words of
encouragement, the delegates voted almost unanimously in favor of the project.
Now
another complication arose. Since Mother Nathalia had not been re-elected to
office, she planned to Immediately start her cloister
at Maria Stein. Sister Florecita, while
not having any
direct knowledge of Mother Nathala's immediate plans, did know of
Mother's interest in beginning a cloister. Previously, when Mother Nathalia was
at the mother house as novice mistress, she and Sister Florecita had spoken
together about each of their interests in this
project. Each had a draft of their proposed statutes. Mother Nathalia had visited the cloisters over in Europe and had
modeled her ideas of a cloister on what she had seen there. During the year
that Mather Nathalia was remodeling the second floor
of the convent at Marta Stein into a cloister, Sister Florecita, who was at the
Information Center in Dayton, got a group of women together and went up to
Marla Stein on a pilgrimage •. This gave her the opportunity to see first hand
what was being done there.
After
the election of Mother Aquinas, Sister Florecita had the strong feeling
that Mother Nathalia might try to start her cloister soon. She was still
stationed at St. Mary's, Dayton at this time, and twice she came to the mother
house to speak with the newly elected officials to see where things stood regarding the
cloister. The officia1s were aware of Mother Nathalia's
attempt to start a cloister of her own but they didn't want to take any action uf their own to prevent her from doing this. After her second visit to the
mother house, Sister Florecita happened to get a ride back to St. Mary's from Sisterr Marcellian Walten. Sister Marcellian, having
been a delegate at the Chapter, knew of Sister Florecita's
wish to begin a cloister, and she asked her if she weren't pleased with the
delegate’s decision. Sister Florecita said :yes, but
then she told her that she feared that Mother Nathalia was going to try to
start it immediately. Sister Marcellian told her that she would take care of that. Sister Marcellian
was stationed in
Having
received this "order" from the chancery, Mother Aquinas then approached Mother Nathalia and told·
her that she wasn't to start the cloister right away but that the chancery had
informed her that this was to be done slowly. Mother Natha1ia replied that she didn't have to listen
to the chancery’s order. In effect, she
ignored it, and carried on with her own plans - but without Sister Ephrem.
She got Sister
Miriam to join her and both of them went to Marta Stein to begin their cloistered
life. Their quarters consisted of a few bedrooms. a
small dining room, a small outside balcony, and the second floor balcony in
chapel. Their prayer schedule included making a couple of night hours each
night before the Blessed Sacrament. This whole thing didn't last long. Sister
Miriam discovered she didn't have a calling to that way of life. In a very short time, and Mother Nathalia
stayed only a little while longer as Archbishop Alter didn't consider it a
suitable place for a cloister because of the cramped living quarters.
In the
meantime Mother Aquinas was looking around the Community for a suitable place to start the
cloister. Minster was first considered but then rejected as not being adequate.
Mother Aquinas then considered New Riegel. (Marta Stein had already been rejected
as a possibility.) She had Sister Florecita come to New Riegel to see the
old run down convent that had been condemned as living qua:rte1 by the Bishop, and told her that,
if she would be
responsible for remodeling the place and paying for all of the expensive of
remodeling, that she could have this building for the cloister. Sister Florecita agreed. Sister Florecita was
still living in St. Mary's parish convent, and working at the Catholic Information
Center in Dayton. She solicited a large amount of her donations for the
remodeling from the Dayton area, and with the approval and support of Bishop
Liebold.
Before
beginning any remodeling work on the building, she checked out with a
structural engineer from Cleveland the soundness of the structure to see if it
would be worth remodeling. He judged the building to be "structurally
sound" and then
work was begun, Sister Florecita,
through the Magors
Lumber Company in
When
first beginning the remodeling, Mother Aquinas told the superior at St. Mary's,
Sister Hildergarde that she was not to tell the other sisters at the convent
what Sister Florecita was doing. This caused difficulties as Sister Florecita
would come up to New Riegel about once a month to check on bow the
remodeling work was progressing. Finally, Sister Hildergarde
disregarded the restriction and informed the sisters.
Mother
Aquinas asked Sister Florecita if she wouldn't like to live up at New Riegel
the next year and teach in the school and that \way she would be right there to
see how the remodeling was progressing. Sister Florecita said yes if she could
teach the eighth grade since she was accustomed to teaching this grade and it
would make it a little easier for her to carry on with this responsibility
along with the remodeling project. This created a controversy on the New Riegel
school board. A Sister had never taught the eighth grade before and they didn't
know if they would be capable of doing so. After seeing Sister’s credentials,
they decided to take the risk and give it a try. Because of the number of her credits, Sister
Florecita was given the same salary as that of the two principals. This money
was not used for the cloister project, however; it was sent into the treasury
at the mother house in Dayton.
When not
teaching or soliciting for donations, Sister Florecita would be working in the
cloister section of the convent with some helpers from the high school. One
afternoon while carrying out she fell down the back stairwell – one of the
newly replaced steps was not the same size as the others - and lay unconscious
there until one of the high school girls found her and went for help. She was taken to the hospital and remained
unconscious until about nine that evening. Her arm was broken in two places and
she had received multiple bruises on her face from the fall. After a short
time, however, she was back to her job of teaching, and back to her work with
the remodeling, even though her arm had to remain in a cast for a couple of
months.
During
the year from January 1955 to January 1956, Sister Florecita raised close to
$38,500 in donations for the cloister project. These funds went toward paying
for the work of remodeling and for buying necessary household articles.
Towards
the end of the year, Sister Florecita went to Kastle
Electric Company in Dayton and ordered several of that year's appliances - a
refrigerator, deep freeze, double oven range, washer and drier, etc. - coming
to a total of $1, 262.93. She told the manager to have all of these appliances
ready to deliver by January and, although she didn’t have a penny to pay for these things at
the time, by January she would have the necessary funds.
A couple
of weeks before she needed the money, Sister Florecita asked Della Gess if she would lend her the money for these articles.
Della agreed and Sister was able to pay for the appliances. Sister Florecita then solicited Della's help
in raising the donations that would be used to pay Della back. Della was a hard
worker at raising the donations.
Sister
Florecita also went to Elder-Johnson in Dayton and ordered all or the beds and
some other items for the cloister. She received the help of the Pfiaum family; publishers of the Catholic Messenger, to pay for all of this. She asked
Elder-Johnson's if they would be responsible for delivering not only all of the
items she had ordered at their store up to New Riegel in January, but also all
the items she bad
bought at Kastle's. They complied with her wishes and
delivered all of these up to New Riegel on one snowy January days.
Sister
Florecita also had the Lowe Paint Company of Dayton donate and deliver all of
the paint that would be needed for the entire convent. She bought monk's cloth
from a firm in Richmond, Indiana that would be used for the drapes for the windows. With
the help of one other
woman she made all of the drapes for the windows.
By the
end of 1957, the remodeling work was all completed and Mr. Weller, the
contractor had been paid in full. Sister Florecita and Mary Leo were going to
London, Canada to visit the Sisters of the Precious Blood, and before they left
to visit this cloister, they made the last payment on the remodeling debt.
Two
years later, however, Sister Florecita received a bill through the mall from Mr. Weller for $10,000.00. - yet to be paid on the work he had done. Dismayed by this, Sister 'Florecita told her
predicament to Father Dobmeyer, who was the confessor
Father at the time. Father Dobmeyer said be was in the same predicament as she was. He
had Mr. Weller to paint his church and, after having paid him in full, two
years later he received another bill for $5,000 .00.
Sister
Florecita hired Mr. Flynn as a lawyer to handle this and after informed Mr.
Weller she had done so, Mr. Weller turned around and hired two lawyers of his
own. A meeting was arranged between the three lawyers, Mr.
Weller, Sister Florecita, and Mother Aquinas. It turned out that Sister
Florecita had all of her written records, cancelled checks, etc., to show at
the meeting, while Mr. Weller had kept no records at all. He was in a bad
financial condition, had deliberately not kept records, and avoided paying his
income taxes. It was a pattern of his to bill his customers twice, hoping that
during an interlude -of a couple of years they would forget they had paid or not he able to prove
it. The lawyers battled
hack and forth for a while, both sides speaking pretty strongly. It was
clear to most in the room that Mr. Flynn and Sister Florecita had won the
argument with evidence.
.. ~ |
REASONS FOR
REQUESTING SEPARATION
Having
attempted to live a monastic, contemplative way of life within the Congregation
of the Sisters of the Precious Blood fore twenty-one years, the Contemplative
Sisters have found it progressively more difficult to live out their way of life from within the framework
of policies and norms intended for the active Congregation. They realize the
need for complete independence in the decision-making areas such as government,
finances, formal membership and administration, if they are to continue to live
out their vow to a contemplative way of life.
Some of
the following difficulties are the basis for their petition for Complete separation from the Congregation.
- Lack
of a basic understanding of the nature of a contemplative way of
life on the part of
the larger Congregation. This has been the source of
many misunderstanding and a general lack of support for a contemplative branch
by the active Congregation from the beginning.
- Lack
of freedom and responsibility to live out a contemplative way of life from
within the Congregation in the manner that members of the contemplative branch
deem most suitable for its realization.
-
Disregard of the approved Statues and Principles of the contemplative branch by
the authorities of the main body of the Congregation in their process of
carrying out the policies and norms intended for the entire Congregation.
-
Difficulties over membership:
discouragement of membership for the contemplative branch through the
course of several administrations … e. g. diverting interested and qualified
Sisters elsewhere, placing non-qualified Sisters in the cloister without prior
consultation with the contemplative Sisters.
- Long
standing difficulties over formation: disregard by the authority in the larger
Congregation of the contemplative group’s canonically established novitiate;
and insistence by authorities on having members who join the contemplative
branch from outside the Congregation receive their formation within the active
part of the Congregation.
- Long
standing difficulties over finances and administration: The Congregation
requires of its contemplative branch the same financial and administrative
obligations as it does of its other institutions and houses without due regard
for its distinctive nature and purpose, sighting several instances in its
pressure upon the contemplative group in financial and administrative
matters.
-
Immediate difficulties: an attempt by the President and her Council to
implement decisions made by them which would radically alter the nature and
purpose of the contemplative house.
Those decisions were supposedly derived from information gathered from a
canonical visitation conducted by two Sisters from the Congregation at the
contemplative house in November, 1977.
Such decisions could not have been derived from the information they
gathered.
SUPPORT
IN THE EVENT OF SEPARATION
This
contemplative section of Sisters occupies a building, originally dilapidated,
which they had renovated, then built a sufficiently large addition to, all financed
by the work and efforts of the Contemplative Sisters themselves. They also have a very impressive printing
plant in this same house, all financed in the same way. Canonically and civilly all of the above
belong to the Congregation of the Sisters of the Precious Blood. If given to the Contemplative Sisters in the
event of a separation, they would have a suitable residence and sufficient
means for their own support. The
Contemplative Sisters are now in the process of negotiating with the larger Congregation
for the procurement of the building.
Contemplative Sisters of the Precious Blood
Our Lady of the Nativity Monastery
New Riegel, Ohio 44853
Phone 419-595-2303
ROUGH DRAFT
of Cover Letter
to be sent to Father Hiser
Dear Father
Hiser:
It is
our understanding that Father Joseph Gallen, S.J.,
has already informed you that you would possibly be receiving this
petition for separation and request for beginning a new religious
institute. Along with our petition and
request we enclose the following related materials:
- A
Brief History of the Contemplative Sisters of the Precious Blood
-
Reasons for separation from the Congregation
- A Brief Synopsis of each member of the Contemplative group
- A
Statement of the financial postion of the
Contemplative group
- Past
and present "statutes"
and “Principles of Contemplative living”
- Copies
of more detailed histories of the Contemplative Sisters of the Precious Blood
-
Letters of Recommendation
- A copy
of the letter of petition for separation submitted to the President of the
Congregation of the Sisters of the Precious Blood of December 12, 1977
Besides
submitting these materials for your consideration, we will gladly supply any other
pertinent information that you would request.
Respectfully
Yours,
Contemplative Sisters of the Precious Blood
Our Lady of the Nativity Monastery
New Riegel, Ohio 44853
Phone 419-595-2303
January
5, 1918
Sister Charmaine Grilliot
Generalate
4000 Denlinger Road;
Dayton,
Ohio
Dear
Sister Charmaine and Members of the Counci1
We
received your letter of December 23 wherein you informed us of your meeting
with Father Donald Heintachel concerning the matter
of our request for separation from the Congregation and a1so wherein you
informed us that the Community Counci1 will formulate some kind of response to
our request at their regular meeting the week of January 28.
Since
submitting our request for separation on December 13, we have consulted various
authorities in order to become more fully informed as to what our separation
entails.
From our
past experiences of trying to live a contemplative way of life within the
Congregation and from the prayer and discernment of each one of the seven
members of our group, we have come as a community to this firm resolution for
separation from the Congregation in order that we may obtain the complete
autonomy that contemplatives consider so essential to their way of life.
In our
continued attempt to deal with you openly and honestly about this matter, we
wish to convey to you that we do not see further negotiation for a greater
autonomy within the Congregation as being a viable alternative to the total
separation we propose. It is our determination
that the time in our history has come for complete break from the Congregation
and that, in and through all the circumstances and events which surround our
lives, it is the Spirit who moves us in this direction.
We ask
for your continued co-operation in all that concerns this matter and we pray
that the Spirit will guide each one of you in all of your deliberations.
Respectfully
Signed
by the seven sisters
Contemplative Sisters of the Precious Blood
Our Lady of the Nativity Monastery
New Riegel, Ohio 44853
Phone 419-595-2303
March 1,
1978
Most
Rev. Richard B. Ackerman, C. S. Sp.
1140
Madison Avenue
Covington, Kentucky
Dear
Bishop Ackerman:
A little
over two months have passed since four of our Sisters met with you and
discussed our decision to separate from the Sisters of the Precious Blood and to
begin anew as an independent contemplative monastery. At the time of our meeting with you, you will
remember, we were still awaiting the response of Sister Charmaine
and her Council to our petition for separation from the Congregation. Towards
the end of January
the Community Council met to consider our petition and, in the first part of February,
we were informed that the Council had decided to honor it and to send it on to
the Sacred Congregation for Religious in
Contemplative
Community, The Contemplative Sisters at New
Riegel have requested separation from the Congregation of the Sisters of the
Precious Blood. The Sisters give two reasons:
1) they continue to experience difficulty living the contemplative live within
an active congregation. 2) they need greater independence in decision making areas such
as government, finances, fornation, administration, membership. The Community
Council has informed the local Ordinaries of Cincinnati and
Within the past few weeks, we have been advised to work on
putting together some background materials concerning our contemplative group,
its origin and development, for the purpose of submitting this to the Sacred
Congregation. Likewise, we have been
advised to start working on a new constitution for our way of life which must
be submitted to
Now that
the separation process is initiated, one of the more immediate factors that comes into consideration for us is that of location. If at all possible, we would like to remain
at our present location within the diocese of
During the course of our meeting last December, you
mentioned that you could suggest to us the names of some bishops who, you
thought, would be willing to accept a contemplative community such as ours
within their diocese. We would greatly
appreciate it, if you would now send such a list of suggested names to us in
this return envelope that is enclosed.
We recall with gratitude the gracious way you received us
this past December. You placed a ray of
hope into our lives at that time. We
shall continue to remember you in a special way befor
the Lord in prayer.
The Contemplative
Sisters of the Precious Blood