Valley of Our Lady Monastery Nuns Need a New Home

Bishop Roboert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin wrote how the story began sixty years ago.

Shortly after the founding of our diocese in 1946, Bishop William O'Connor, conscious of the need for prayerful support for the welfare of the diocese, petitioned the Vatican to help find a group of contemplative sisters to create a monastery here to pray for the needs of the diocese. This was to be a "powerhouse of prayer" for the welfare of our diocese and for all humanity. In 1957, six Cistercian sisters from Frauenthal in Switzerland with great self-sacrifice responded to this invitation.

The Swiss sisters eventually were able to turn the monastery they founded over to American successors. The nuns say they have lived in pretty poor conditions over these years. They now have a capital campaign to build a new monastery.

The nuns are a contemplative order. They first tried to support themselves farming. When that didn't work out, they turned to producing altar breads. A few weeks back, we received a flyer with our bulletin at St. Al's soliciting funds. The announcement at Mass mentioned that the nuns baked our altar breads.

I wonder if that was true when we went through that long stretch of using parish-baked croutons instead of hosts. When the Liturgy Committee asked the Parish Council to back them on this change, they didn't mention that it might also be cutting into a contemplative order's living.