Saturday, March 18, 2006
Two of the sisters at the Howland convent are looking for work.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HE BYZANTINE Benedictine Sisters of Queen of Heaven Monastery are looking for a few good women.
Sister Margaret Mary Schima, Order of St. Benedict, prioress of the Howland convent, says the order has slowly diminished from 15 nuns in 1969 to seven sisters.
That's why they are inviting single Catholic women to visit with them March 31 to April 2 at their Squires Lane convent in Howland across from Forum Health Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital.
"It's a recruitment weekend," Sister Margaret Mary acknowledges. One of the areas that will be covered is how the women will know that God is calling them to the religious life.
She and Sister Agnes Knapik, OSB, vocation director at the convent, said they aren't looking for the 15- and 16-year-old girls convents once attracted. These girls tended not to remain nuns because they weren't mature enough when they professed their vows.
What they're looking for
Rather, the order is looking for "mature women" with work experience, an indication they have a stable life.
They seek women who have had their marriage annulled, women whose children no longer depend on them and even those in their 50s and 60s "because they still have 20 years left," Sister Margaret Mary explained.
"You don't have to be a college graduate," she noted, because they work in various areas, not just education.
Their final vows include chastity, stability, obedience and pursuit of a monastic life in a group. Prayer is the center of their lives.
There is a benefits package. For example, the nuns have a retirement fund.
Sister Mary Margaret earned between $18,000 and $19,000 annually when the order taught at the school run by Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Warren.
"When the school closed in June 2005, we lost our jobs," she said.
Sisters Mary Margaret and Agnes have been unemployed and are looking for jobs.
One of their fellow nuns works at a parish, another teaches at Kent State University and another volunteers doing children's rehabilitation.
"We do other things than work in schools," Sister Margaret Mary said.
Sister Agnes noted recruiting has been difficult in recent years and two nuns at the convent have died.
The nuns have been studying their future for the past four years. "We have to make plans for what will happen to us," Sister Margaret Mary added.
Some convents have merged, but the Howland sisters represent the only Benedictine Byzantine order in the country.
Unsure about future
The sisters say they don't know what they're going to do.
With the school closed, Sister Mary Margaret said, the nuns must change and work where they are needed.
Their incomes are put into a "common fund" to pay for retirement benefits, food, medical costs and utilities at the convent.
Because Sister Mary Margaret was taking home such a small amount as a teacher, she receives $103 a month in Social Security benefits.
They trace their beginnings to 1951 in Lisle, Ill. They moved to Warren at the request of the late Monsignor Sylvester Hladky to open a school at his Sts. Peter and Paul Parish. The school opened in 1954.
They lived at a motherhouse two blocks from the East Market Street church, and changed the name to reflect a monastery because it more aptly described the place where Benedictines live.
In 1970, the sisters moved to the Howland monastery on 10 acres the order bought.
Sister Margaret Mary pointed out that her order isn't cloistered. "We're not in a prison," she said. They travel to meetings, attend concerts and visit their families. They even have a vacation fund.
yovich@vindy.com