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Heaven was haven
Benedictine Sisters may have sold their monastery, but community remains based around common life and prayer
By LINDA M. LINONIS
howland township
It’s a bittersweet time for the seven Benedictine Sisters of the Byzantine Church who have lived, ministered and prayed at Queen of Heaven Monastery on Squires Lane for many years.
The sisters moved into the motherhouse on Dec. 13, 1969; it was dedicated May 3, 1970. That chapter of their lives is ending as the monastery has been sold to the Orthodox Coptic Church.
Another chapter of their lives will begin Tuesday, when they pray the Divine Office in the chapel for the last time and leave the monastery. The sisters are moving to Infant Jesus of Prague Manor, next to Sts. Peter and Paul Byzantine Catholic Church in Warren.
Sister Margaret Mary Schima, monastery administrator and former prioress, said that though the monastery has been their home and place of prayer, it is a building. Their faith and service is what makes them the community of Benedictines. “It’s where the sisters are,” she said.
Sister Margaret explained that Queen of Heaven first had the word convent attached to the name. “Vatican II told us to go back to our roots,” she said. “That was St. Benedict and the monastic way of life.”
Sister Margaret Mary quoted St. Benedict, “We live by the work of our hands,” and these are the words that the sisters live by. They praise God daily in Divine Liturgy, Liturgical Hours of Vespers, Little Hours and Matins according to the Byzantine Rite.
She said the Benedictines pray the Divine Office daily as a group. Their group has gone from 15 to the current number of seven. As their number has dwindled and they have gotten older, the group decided to sell the 10-acre property on Squires Lane and become a dependent monastery of Sacred Heart Monastery in Lisle, Ill. Sister Margaret Mary said the youngest in the group is 70. “We’re too small for this large place,” she said, “so it’s time to move to a smaller place.”
Though they are retired from various careers, Sister Margaret Mary said, they will continue to do catechial work for Byzantine churches in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The sisters said they were downsizing, which was a good thing.
But they will take with them the foundation cross, a special one that came from their heritage at the Sacred Heart Convent in Lisle, Ill.
Sister Barbara Pavlik, a Benedictine for 53 years and a teacher from 1959-75, now is secretary at Sts. Peter and Paul. She designed the stained-glass windows that lead to the chapel and those in the chapel. The words on the windows reflect the heart of the Benedictines. “It is charism ... spirit of St. Benedict ... the spirit of the rule,” Sister Barbara said.
The messages include the Benedict Scholastica “... to seek God in cenobitic life, prayer and ministry;” the Benedictine vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and stability; “Go proclaim the joyous news — Christos voskrese — Christ is risen from Resurrection Matins; and “Let us beg God to supply by His grace that which by nature is lacking to use” — Rule of Benedict.
Sister Agnes Knapik, a sister for 49 years, was a longtime teacher at Sts. Peter and Paul. She is coordinator of Pittsburgh Archeparchy Office of Safe Environment and Protection of Children.
Sister Mary Martha Kacmarek, a sister since 1966, used the term “bittersweet” to describe the move. She was a math teacher at Kent State University and Sts. Peter and Paul Byzantine School in Warren.