Through the Decades – 1990s

As the 70^th anniversary of the sisters’ arrival in Wisconsin is celebrated this year, it is important to share the history and culture of the Benedictine Women of Madison. What brought the sisters to this area? What influences shaped the mission, vision and values? Who played key roles in what eventually became Holy Wisdom Monastery?

Highlights* of the growth, change, and stability of the Benedictine Women of Madison will be reviewed in the weeks leading up to the 70^th Anniversary Celebration on July 9.

*These highlights only reflect the history of the sisters after their move to Madison in 1953.

In this issue, the focus is on the 1990s. As they had in the 1960s, the sisters focused on examining their future, their place in society and how they as a community would continue to seek God. They had engaged in 10 years of experimentation with various forms of ecumenical communities in the 1980s. These experiences prompted the question: how will our community move into the 21st century?

• In October, Sister Mary David Walgenbach and staff from the retreat and conference center attended the first session of the Development Education Program for Religious, sponsored by the Lilly Foundation. Sister Mary David hoped to adapt what they learned there to the ministries of St. Benedict Center. Instead, it became the catalyst for the sisters’ planning process – providing them with a framework to look at community life and a process in which to do long-range planning.
• Sisters Barbara Dannhausen, OP (pictured below in flowered dress), and her associate, Michelle Olley, OP, with Consultants for the Empowerment of Organizations, were the main presenters at the Lilly Foundation development program. Sisters Mary David and Joanne Kollasch approached Sister Barbara to serve as a planning consultant for both the retreat and conference center and the sisters’ community. One question that arose from their consultation with Sister Barbara was, “What are the future options for Sisters of St. Benedict?” This question needed to be answered before the planning process could continue.

1992

• In February, Sisters Mary David and Joanne began a visioning process with other religious leaders to discern their future life and ministries. The Visioning and Feedback Group generated 18 different options for the sisters’ consideration, from ecumenical vowed members to a lay monastic community. Sisters Mary David and Joanne took the vision to the retired members of the community, who enthusiastically endorsed the work and options generated by the planning committee. 
• After a second meeting of the Visioning and Feedback Group in April, the sisters chose the future option that spoke to them – to become an ecumenical community of vowed Benedictine women. With the assistance of Sister Barbara and a consulting group, they articulated their vision as: “We will become an ecumenical monastery of publicly professed Christian women, following the Rule of Benedict and fulfilling the mission of the Sisters of St. Benedict, Madison, Wisconsin by continuing the Benedictine charism of prayer and worship, community and hospitality in an ecumenical environment; by developing and sustaining mutual relationships with monastics in Africa; and by being open to opportunities as they arise.”
• The Visioning and Feedback Group included: Sister Jeanne Schweickert, SSSF, one of the founders of Convergence; Sister Ruth Fox, OSB, president of the Federation of St. Gertrude; Reverend Robert Raymond, former St. Benedict Center staff member and a Presbyterian minister and futurist; Sister Mary Collins, OSB, author and lecturer at Catholic University of America’s School of Religious Studies; Sister Anselm Hammerling, OSB, former president of the Federation of St. Gertrude; Sister Margaret Michaud, OSB, former president of the Federation of St. Benedict; Reverend Theophane Boyd, OCSO, St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado; Roy Anderson, retired attorney and current librarian at St. Benedict Center; Robert Bright of the Community Dynamics Institute, University of Wisconsin Extension, Madison; Sister Michael Marie Rottinghaus, OSB, a Missionary Benedictine Sister from Norfolk, Nebraska; Sister Paula Larson, OSB, prioress of Assumption Abbey, Richardton, North Dakota; Neal Smith, director of administration at St. Benedict Center; and Lucy Kester, also on staff at St. Benedict Center.
• During the 1992 Visioning and Feedback program, one of the participants, Theophane Boyd, OCSO, shared an idea the sisters had been contemplating – restoring their land to its native state. Care for the earth had concerned the sisters since their arrival in 1953. From the beginning the sisters fended off multiple attempts by developers to purchase portions of the monastery lands. In consultation with the architectural firm of Rafferty and Rafferty and Brother Frank Kacmarcik, oblate, St. John’s Abbey, work began on developing a master plan to protect and restore monastery grounds. Again, Sisters Mary David and Joanne visited the retired sisters in Sioux City, IA monthly to keep them informed about the master planning process and consulted with them about the options.

1993

• Sister Mary David assumed leadership of the Madison Benedictines when she was elected to a six-year term as prioress on May 21st.

1994

• An Ecumenical Board (pictured above) was established in February by Sisters Joanne and Mary David to advise them in making the transformation from a Benedictine monastery of Roman Catholic women to becoming a non-canonical “ecumenical” Benedictine monastery of women.
• The original members of the board included: Richard Bell, author and professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio; Robert Bright, member of the University of Wisconsin’s Family Living Program; Reverend P. Linwood Urban, Episcopal priest and professor emeritus from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania; Reverend Jude Weisenbeck, SDS, director of the Office of Ecumenism in Louisville, Kentucky; Sister Donald Corcoran, OSB Cam., Transfiguration Monastery, Windsor, New York; and Neal Smith, director of administration for St. Benedict Center.
• According to Richard Bell in his history of the ecumenical board (unpublished, 2007), “Early board meetings could be a bit of a puzzle to many of us as we were finding our way with a multitude of ideas about ‘ecumenism’ and the degrees to which it flowed both to and from the Roman Catholic communion. Persistent Protestants along with the community members kept ‘pushing the envelope’ to consider a fully open invitation to community – not to mention the Eucharist – as well as equal/full profession to the Rule of Benedict and to a unified Christian faith. This was not to subvert differences, but to share traditions and encourage diversity that would be compatible with the Benedictine charism.”
• The work of the Ecumenical Board was concluded in January of 2010 after writing foundational statements (click here to read statements).
• As part of the visioning process, the sisters decided to renovate the old school building (now the retreat & guest house) as the monastery. Remodeling began in April. The new monastery would house offices, the community kitchen and refectory, the library, an oratory for Liturgy of Hours (daily prayer), the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, rooms for monastery guests and personal retreatants, and space for spiritual direction and Benedictine program offerings. Most important, this renovated space would provide greater visibility as the Monastery of St. Benedict Center.

• The sisters had started raising funds for the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in Kenya, Nigeria, and China. Sisters Mary David and Joanne traveled to Seoul, Korea in May to meet with Mother Edeltrud Weist, Prioress General of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. With the growing relationship between the two communities, the Sisters of St. Benedict hoped to receive sisters from Korea who would temporarily live with them and add to their monastic presence (see photo above). Sisters Catherin Cho and Asella Kim arrived in Madison in the fall to live at St. Benedict’s while they attended WESLI (Wisconsin English as a Second Language Institute) to learn to speak and write English. Over the next 14 years, more than 25 sisters from Brazil, Africa, the Philippines, Spain and Korea came to stay at the Monastery of St. Benedict Center while they furthered their education or took much needed breaks from their missionary work.
• Father Ken Smits, Capuchin (pictured below on left), Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order, Detroit, Michigan, was hired as director of Benedictine life ministries in August. Father Ken held a Master of Theology degree from the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, and a Master of Liturgy degree from the Catholic Institute in Paris, France. He taught liturgy at St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and had extensive experience working as a staff person at retreat centers.

1995

• In May, the sisters held a special rededication and blessing ceremony (pictured above) to celebrate the completion of the renovation of the school building into the Monastery of St. Benedict Center. In the rededication program Frank Kacmarcik, OblSB, St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, wrote the following: “The building is a meaningful sign of Benedictine community life and worship. The planning has helped to achieve an atmosphere of peace and quiet, conducive to prayer. Its simplicity and order are characteristic of Benedictine life.”
• The sisters completed their first master plan to care for the earth in June, which mapped out a bold new direction at the Monastery of St. Benedict Center. The master plan served as a catalyst to explore the history of the sisters’ land and return much of it to its natural state which consisted of oak savanna and prairie grasses. The plan called for the sisters to accomplish certain goals: restore Lost Lake (the nine-acre 10,000-year-old glacial lake on the sisters’ property), restore an upland prairie; create a wetland preserve, expand and enhance walking trails, establish a natural buffer between the conservation project and developing areas and provide for ongoing stewardship of the land. 
• In July, Sister Mary David traveled to Meihekou, China to visit the Missionary Benedictine Sisters and see first-hand the progress being made on their 400-bed medical facility. While there, Mary David met Sara (Quin Xiang Hu), who was teaching the Missionary Benedictine Sisters to speak Chinese and acting as a translator for the sisters.
• Sister Michael Marie Rottinghaus was a good friend to both Sara and the Sisters of St. Benedict Center in Madison. Upon Mary David’s return from China, she and Mary David began the process to help Sara obtain a visa to come to the United States to further her education.
• Sara was granted a visa and arrived at the Monastery of St. Benedict Center in December. Sara started attending WESLI (Wisconsin English as a Second Language Institute) with the Missionary Benedictine Sisters to learn English.

• The Benedictine Life Foundation was incorporated in September to “[provide] ongoing support and development for the program and capital needs of the Sisters of St. Benedict of Madison, Wisconsin, Inc.”

• The Fox Bluff neighborhood and upland farmland drain into Lost Lake. Years of farming and urban development had accelerated the silting over of Lost Lake, reducing it in size by 75 percent.
• Dane County provided the engineering expertise, while the DNR assisted with funding for filtration devices for both the wetland and Lost Lake, and creation of the new wetland. During wet seasons, water from Lost Lake overflows into Lake Mendota. Any actions taken to improve the water quality of Lost Lake would have the ripple effect of improving the water quality of Lake Mendota.
• The new wetland preserve was completed by mid-October. In addition to providing nesting areas for birds and other prairie life, the structure could hold and slowly release 10.5 acre-feet of water, an integral part of runoff protection for the north side of Lake Mendota.
• Sisters Mary David and Joanne attended the nineteenth Chapter of the Federation of St. Gertrude at Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton, South Dakota, in July. The previous year, Mary David approached the Federation of St. Gertrude (to which the sisters’ community was a member) and requested a resolution for the affiliation of the Madison Benedictine’s Ecumenical Community be placed on the July 1996 Federation Chapter agenda.
• During the Chapter, Sister Mary David spoke to members about the Madison community’s desire to establish a non-canonical ecumenical community. She asked for two specific actions by the Chapter: 1) a resolution of support for the proposed undertaking and 2) the establishment of a committee to study the affiliation to the Federation of monasteries not canonically eligible for membership. The Federation of St. Gertrude Chapter unanimously passed a resolution of support and established an Ad-Hoc committee to explore the meaning of the affiliation and drafted an Adjunct Document of Affiliation.

• More than 100 volunteers, the sisters, and Monastery of St. Benedict Center staff seeded 15 acres of the new wetland in November. Sarah Sirios, Benedictine Life Foundation assistant, commented, “Why would 120 people come to toss prairie seed out of a plastic bucket when they could be watching the Badgers trounce Iowa on Homecoming Saturday? Watching the undulating wave of people roll slowly over the freshly tilled earth, I imagined the rich plethora of grasses that will one day take their place. What satisfaction, I thought, to be able to say, ‘I am a part of this….’”

• The sisters received the Manfred Swarsensky Humanitarian Service Award from the Madison Rotary Club. The award was established in 1982 and honors those who have made outstanding contributions to humanitarian service in the realm of race relations, women’s health, conservation or public service in the greater Madison community. Rabbi Swarsensky was a member of the Madison Rotary Club until his passing in 1981. The sisters were nominated for the award by a team that included Rev. Ace Schumacher, Bishop of the Southern, Wisconsin District of the American Lutheran Church (pictured above with Sisters Mary David and Joanne).
• One of the sisters’ goals was to establish an oblate community. In December, Susan and Charlie Carlson, Anne Edwardson, Deacon Joan Smoke, Reverend Jan Summers, Father Ken Smits, Capuchin, Sister Mary David, Neal Smith and Jody Crowley-Beers held their first meeting as a steering committee. Sister Mary David, Father Ken Smits and Jody Crowley-Beers designed the oblate program, then opened it up to another five people.

• On December 23rd, Benedictine Women of Madison, Inc., became a legal entity with the filing of articles of incorporation. The purpose of the corporation was to receive Christian women of any denomination as monastics into the new ecumenical monastic community (Benedictine Women of Madison).
• Over a period of three winters, from 1998 to 2000, the Bruce Company of Middleton dredged Lost Lake, returning it to nearly its original size of nine acres and depth of 14 feet.

• He worked with the prayer and worship committee and the sisters in the continuing effort to make the Liturgy of the Hours (daily prayer) more user-friendly, changing the ordo (Latin: order, rank) to include feasts and anniversaries of women saints and church reformers, and writing new intersessions and prayers in inclusive language.
• He assisted Sunday Assembly with the preparation of an identity statement and collaborated with the sisters on the expression of their monastic rituals.
• He readily endorsed the sisters’ work in ecumenism. He authored a paper on the meaning of ecumenism in which he wrote the following: “The ecumenism of the Benedictine Women of Madison is a practical ecumenism, grounded in hospitality, inviting development of community, which is fostered by sharing spirit and life. It is grass roots ecumenism. It is the kind appropriate to a monastic community.”
• Father Ken left the staff in October of 2008 to serve as chaplain for the Sisters of St. Agnes in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

1999

• In April, Sister Mary David was reelected prioress for a term of 6 years.
• On July 6th, the Federation of St. Gertrude Chapter adopted the Ad-Hoc committee’s Adjunct Document on Affiliation on an experimental basis until the Federation Chapter of 2005, at which time the Chapter would evaluate and reconsider the document. It had been three years since Sisters Mary David and Joanne had attended the nineteenth Chapter of the Federation of St. Gertrude in South Dakota and asked them to support the creation of a non-canonical ecumenical community and form an Ad-Hoc committee to study the affiliation of monasteries not canonically eligible for membership to the Federation.
• The Chapter approved the implementation of the adjunct document which permitted a member monastery to establish a non-canonical dependent monastery.

What’s coming up?

Next week the focus will be on the 2000s. The new century would bring more changes for the Benedictine Women of Madison as well as recognition of their commitment to serving others and the land. The hard work of the sisters, friends and supporters resulted in many of their dreams and goals coming to fruition.