Monastic Life

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We are a community of Benedictine monastic women who seek God through our response to the Gospel challenge and the Rule of St. Benedict. We live a contemplative/active life grounded in liturgical and personal prayer, in lectio divina, with time for silence and solitude. It is a life balanced by work, study, and leisure.

Through our monastic profession we vow stability, fidelity to monastic life, and obedience.

STABILITY is uniquely Benedictine. It calls us to live for a lifetime with the monastic Community of our profession. Stability challenges us to be an ecclesial community, a sacrament of Christ’s presence, as we are transformed by the living God. Stability promises that, wherever our individual ministries might take us, we will always return to this Monastery. In our hearts and in our lives as Benedictines, we are always on our way home.

FIDELITY TO THE MONASTIC LIFE is our commitment to personal growth and change. We constantly work to smooth the rough edges of our lives. In our promise of fidelity (which includes poverty and celibacy), we grow in our relationships with God and each other. It is a promise to become the persons we are called to be by Christ.

OBEDIENCE calls us to listen attentively and respond eagerly to the will of God revealed through our prioress and Community, in Scripture and the Rule of St. Benedict, in the needs of Church and society, and in the ongoing challenges of human history. Through individual and communal obedience we empty ourselves so that the transforming presence of God may fill and guide us.

For more than 125 years we have been deeply rooted in the City and Diocese of Duluth. We look forward to the future with great hope, trusting that our loving God will guide us as we work toward a more just and compassionate world.

Who Becomes Part of Our Community?

We are women of varying backgrounds, interests and talents, who welcome eligible women who truly seek God — the young and the not-so-young, those richly experienced and skilled, those established in their careers, and those still preparing for them. We are open to various forms of ministry to God and God’s people that are compatible with monastic life.

If you are called to dedicate your life to God as a vowed religious or as a lay person, and are discerning where you can best serve God, we invite you to follow the link to our Vocations section.

Our Community in 2017
Our Community in 2017
A Great Lakes freighter (called a 'Laker') leaves port with a load of taconite iron ore, on its way to the steel mills in Indiana. Duluth, sometimes called the “San Francisco of the Midwest” for its steep hills, follows the shores of Lake Superior and the St. Louis River. The city is 35 miles long and two miles wide.
A Great Lakes freighter (called a 'Laker') leaves port with a load of taconite iron ore, on its way to the steel mills in Indiana. Duluth, sometimes called the “San Francisco of the Midwest” for its steep hills, follows the shores of Lake Superior and the St. Louis River. The city is 35 miles long and two miles wide.
Sisters enjoy the annual Bentleyville Christmas light display near the harbor in Duluth.
Sisters enjoy the annual Bentleyville Christmas light display near the harbor in Duluth.
“Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.”
–Henri Nouwen