St. Joseph Monastery Closing After Over 160 Years

WTAJ.COM ^ | 15 JANUARY 2014 | MALLORY LANE

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

ST. MARYS, ELK COUNTY - The St. Joseph Monastery in St. Marys is the oldest in the United States, and after 161 years of serving the community, it's closing its doors.

At its peak in the 60s and 70s, the St. Joseph Monastery in St. Marys, Elk County had 125 sisters. Today, there are 17 left, ages 58 to 91, and they'll have to find a new home.

We spoke with many people in the St. Marys community who say the St. Joseph Monastery is a huge institution for the community. They say the news of it closing is devastating.

It's the end of an era.

"Just as God calls a group of people into ministry, I think there's a time when God says you have completed your ministry and it's time to move on," St. Joseph Monastery Administrator, Sister Rita Brink, said.

[Gay State Conservative]

Life has to be very tough for nuns...maybe even tougher than for priests.Perhaps the “recruiting” of nuns should be confined to women who've been widowed and are perhaps a bit older.That way they will have had the joy of a family,making their years as a nun less arduous.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Is this where Straub beer is made?

[arthurus]

It has been principally tough for the nuns that answered the call to Modernism in the 60s and 70s. The contemplative orders that wear habits and are not just unmarried social workers have mostly been gaining recruits all along. The modernist convents emptied out in the 60s and 70s because the logic of being nun to do nothing different from that which women do for the government and get paid simply decreed that they should shift to colleges and government offices and they did.

[informavoracious]

Traditional orders are bursting at the seams. Sisters and brothers can be wonderful examples. Remember when parish schools and Catholic hospitals were filled with nuns quietly working for little more than love of God? When the convents emptied out, big Government came in to help pay the bills. Now they get to tell the sisters what they will and won’t do.

[PA Lurker]

You are correct. Straub beer is brewed in St. Marys.