Prairie Girls
By Natasa Wilkie
he Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles were founded in
1995 as a tiny community of traditional nuns. Today, forty five young sisters -- whose average age is 29 including the 94-year-old Sr. Wilhelmina -- live in the magnificent rolling farm country near Gower, Missouri.
And they’re famous, too. Their albums of chant and hymns have sold very well indeed, with their debut album soaring to number one on the classical Billboard chart in 2013.
Inspired by Our Lady’s hidden life and her role in the early church, the sisters pray for the sacred priesthood. They follow the traditional monastic horarium and chant in Latin – and they are now putting the finishing touches on perhaps the most astonishing feat of all: the construction of a classical stone monastic church.
In a time when the Church is experiencing virtually no young Western vocations to the Orders of ‘liberal’ women religious, such success is newsworthy. REGINA writer Natasa Wilkie interviewed Mother Abbess Cecelia and some of her nuns recently to explore their experience and this extraordinary sign of the times.
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