Nomads no More
October 18th, 2007 by Fr. Pius, OP
Last year, the Monastery of Dominican nuns in Washington, D.C., made the bold decision to erect a new monastery in Northern Virginia. They sold their Monastery on 16th Street in Northwest Washington in preparation for building their new home. In the meantime, the Washington nuns accepted the kind hospitality of the nuns in West Springfield, MA to reside with them during construction. Last spring, the Loudoun Times-Mirror published a story on the nuns and their move to a new home:
“We have never had a permanent home,” says Prioress Sister Mary Paul. “That is what we are most excited about.”
Eight hundred years ago, St. Dominic established a Catholic religious community, known as the Dominican Order, in Toulouse, France. In 1891, a group from the Order left France for the United States, settling in Union City, N.J.
For the last 100 years, the nuns have been on the move. In 1906, members of the group in New Jersey decided to make a new foundation in Baker City, Ore. In the Pacific Northwest, however, the nuns were under pressure from the local bishop to take up teaching or nursing. Rather than give up their life of seclusion, the nuns moved to La Crosse, Wis. After many decades, pastoral care of the community lessened at La Crosse and their numbers dwindled.
In 1984, the nuns came to Washington, D.C., where they took up residence in a house in the northwest section of the city on 16th Street. As their numbers once again began to swell, the nuns enlarged the house and added a chapel, as well as a dormitory wing. Even with such additions, by 2000 the Dominicans had outgrown their home.
“They didn’t have much space,” noted D.C. lawyer Greg Granitto, a friend and adviser since helping the nuns move into the D.C. dwelling. “The urban area had grown up around them. It wasn’t quiet.”
The rural site near Linden will certainly be a change from city living. The 200-acre property, which lies in Fauquier and Warren counties, had previously been part of a family-owned apple orchard.
Fortunately for the Dominican nuns, they do not expect to have to move again. They are building their monastery according to traditional methods in the hope that it will last hundreds of years, and they’ll be the first to admit that it’s far from a typical, modern-day, commercial housing unit.
The rest of the article may be read from the webpage of the Loudoun Times.
