FIRST BENEDICTINE WOMEN IN USA

On this feast of St. Benedict, Archbishop Enrique Benavent Vidal of Valencia in Spain encouraged the faithful to take advantage of summer vacation to read and delve deeper into the Rule of St. Benedict, as it contains “insights that are useful” for the daily life of all Christians.

 “Nothing should come between the Lord and the disciple. The authentic Christian,” the prelate explained, “is one who, in everyday life, values ​​friendship with the Lord above all else and lives all aspects of his life (work, possessions, family life) in such a way that nothing and no one can cause him to lose that friendship.”

 One person who lived this was MOTHER BENEDICTA RIEPP, OSB . While our Community does not trace its beginnings from the first Benedictine sisters to North America, it is still interesting to see how they originated in the USA.  

She was born Sybilla Riepp in Waal, Bavaria (about 80 miles from Eichstatt), on June 28, 1825. Her father, Johann was a glassblower. She had three sisters.

In 1844, she entered St. Walburga monastery in Eichstätt, Bavaria. St. Walburga’s was among the monastic houses experiencing a revival after years of government-mandated secularization stemming from the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars.  One effect of the period of secularization on St. Walburga was that it passed into the hands of the Bavarian government in 1805.  In 1831, the Cabinet proposed that St. Walburga not be allowed to continue its existence. Eventually, the government gave the nuns three options: to make money through votive stands and sell the oil of St. Walburga, to manage a brewery, or to set up a school for girls. The community chose the third option.

Sybilla received the name Benedicta and taught in the girls’ school of Eichstätt and was  novice mistress.

Abbot Boniface Wimmer, a monk of Metten Abbey in Bavaria now abbot of St. Vincent Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, requested nuns be sent over to teach in the schools being set up. St. Walburga, like all monastic women’s communities in Europe were accustomed to a life of strict enclosure, so the idea of coming to America as missionaries was difficult to conceive, as the Community knew enclosure would be  all but impossible.

But the monastic community decided to send a few nuns and in 1852 Sister Benedicta & two other nuns sailed for America  to establish the first Benedictine convent there. Sister Benedicta had a dream about a large flowering tree with beautiful white blossoms. She believed the tree was a symbol of her future community, and her dream has proved to be extremely prescient.

They settled in the German colony of St. Marys, Elk County, Pennsylvania and established St. Joseph's Convent and School, of which Mother Benedicta became superior. 

The six years Mother Benedicta spent as Superior at Saint Joseph Monastery were filled with physical hardship and misunderstandings between herself and Abbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., 

She resisted his interference in the internal matters of the women’s community. He, in turn, questioned her authority as the Superior of the convents she founded. Nevertheless, her leadership during those years resulted in the establishment of three new foundations in Erie, Pennsylvania (1856), Newark, New Jersey (1857), and St. Cloud, Minnesota (1857).

 In 1857, Mother Benedicta travelled to Europe. She hoped her superiors in Eichstätt and Rome would help her resolve the controversy surrounding the independence of the new convents in North America. She and her companion were not favorably received in Eichstätt. They were prevented from traveling to Rome to present her case before the Pope.

Mother Benedicta returned to the United States in 1858, broken in spirit and failing in health. 

In the course of 15 years, nine independent convents were established from the original community, but not without hardships. Enduring jurisdictional disputes with Abbot Wimmer and the motherhouse in Eichstatt, in 1859 Mother Benedicta  returned to Europe in order to secure independence for the American convents. Although she was successful in separating from the motherhouse, the American convents were placed under the authority of their respective diocesan bishops. Abbot Wimmer had Mother Benedicta removed as superior of St. Joseph's. 

She was no longer welcome in the convents she had founded in the East. At the invitation of Mother Willibalda Scherbauer in St. Cloud, she moved to the Minnesota city in the spring of 1858. Four years later, she died of tuberculosis on March 15, 1862 at the age of 36.  One wonders if a broken heart played a part in her death.  

In 1884, her remains were transferred from St. Cloud to the convent cemetery in St. Joseph. By 1964, over 30 independent convents traced their origin to the first convent in St. Marys.

 The only extant writings of Mother Benedicta are fourteen letters written between the years 1852 and 1861. These letters reveal her conviction that her Benedictine vocation was a privilege.

Three federations of Benedictine women in North America, totaling about two thousand members in the early 2000s, remain the legacy of Mother Benedicta Riepp. What she started in the USA over 160 years again continues to bear fruit to this day.