Unable to fill their convent, nuns bid Delaware farewell

St. Catherine of Siena once described Christ as a bridge flung between heaven and earth.    

Just past a doorway to the New Castle monastery named for her, flanked by beds of impatiens, sit two immense trees framing the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

The trio of Dominican nuns who glide on the grounds of Holy Spirit Catholic Church take that as a sign. For the last decade, in their kind, contemplative way, they have served as a bridge between the congregation and the divine.                                                                      

Now, they are about to embark on another move, another step in redefining the cloistered life to fit 21st-century expectations. The youngest among them is a spry 72.

After struggling to recruit novices to cement their foundation's legacy, the nuns, their two cats, 3,000 religious books and dozens of boxes full of one sister's award-winning art work are caravanning to Illinois at the end of the month.

There, they will bunk temporarily with a dozen other nuns at the Monastery of Mary the Queen in Springfield, before moving again 30 miles south to a new monastery overlooking a lake instead of Route 9, and surrounded by cornfields, not chain-link fences.

But before they could pack up the last of their crucifixes and muffin trays, Holy Spirit held a mass and dinner in the sisters' honor Saturday. 

Speaking before more than 100 congregants, representing multiple ethnicities, the Rev. Timothy Nolan noted that the hand of God directed the nuns to New Castle in 2007. The last four digits of the phone number at their convent are 1206, the same year that Saint Dominic founded their order in France.  

"As you depart from New Castle," Nolan told the black-veiled nuns in the front row, "you will always be with us in our hearts and may you always have that Holy Spirit within you."

Bishop W. Francis Malooly of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, who attended the service, said parishioners will miss the sisters' "deep spirituality and cheerful presence."

"The Dominicans, in their short time that they have been here, have been a real blessing not only to the Holy Spirit Parish community," he added, "but to all of us by their visibility at diocesan events."

That visibility represented a radical departure for the nuns when they first arrived in Delaware in the summer of 2007. While apostolic nuns are part of active religious communities that extend into social work, health care, teaching and pastoral work, monastic nuns commit to contemplative, austere lives and withdraw from the world.

But the sisters took a different tack when they established Caterina Benincasa Dominican Monastery, which means "house of welcome or blessing." They had to use the Italian name of the 14th-century mystic to not be confused with St. Catherine de Siena Parish on Centerville Road.

In a brick-and-tan collapsing convent nestled in a working-class neighborhood, they set out to increase their exposure by attending masses and other church events, along with making supermarket runs. In the process, the sisters built a devoted community of lay volunteers who carried the holy spirit with them at work and home.

All three nuns hailed from recently closed convents, as the Catholic Church has moved to consolidate its shrinking Sisterhood. They were drawn to the First State because a group of Dominican friars had recently settled at the University of Delaware.

The early years proved fruitful. The sisters planted a fig tree out back and Sister Mary Grace produced luminous paintings, intricate soapstone and wood carvings and mesmerizing sculptures for the on-site gift shop on Church Drive. Pilgrims flocked to the nearby shrine of Our Lady Queen of Peace, a 32-foot-tall stainless steel Madonna statue by Delaware artist Charles Parks.

By 2012, two novices (nuns-in-training) had arrived. Both ultimately decided to leave the vocation, which involves praying for seven hours a day. The friars also left town. 

"When the friars withdrew, it left us stranded," Sister Emmanuella Handlos remembers.

The final straw came in late 2015, when the sisters, hoping to raise their profile, paid $1,500 to rent a booth in an exhibit hall at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. Celebrating Pope Francis' arrival, Sister Mary Grace auctioned off two pastel art works of the pontiff.

STORY: Nuns off five-star care on Medicaid budget

STORY: New Castle news raffle offPope portraits

It was a bust. The effort raised less than $500 and brought no new recruits.

Sister Ann David Strohminger, the local diocese's Delegate for Religious, said the Benincasa nuns should be praised for their risk-taking. Unfortunately, they realized that "they were not going to be able to fulfill the dream we had," she said.

As a result, the community is grieving the loss of nuns who epitomized hospitality and grace.

"It's going to be hard for them to leave this place because it was such a good fit for them," said Sister Margaret Mary Graney, a Benedictine nun who had to downsize from her convent at St. Elizabeth in Wilmington. Today, she and three other sisters share a five-bedroom house in a north Wilmington development.

Collectively, the Dominican nuns have belonged to the order for more than 150 years and moved 10 times. The days of being tucked away in one monastery until death are no longer, Sister Mary Grace admits. Today, turn-of-the-century monasteries are white elephants — and liabilities.

Sister Mary Grace and the others ticked off the locations of shuttered monasteries: Camden and Union City, New Jersey; and Syracuse and Albany, New York.

They made the decision last year to reach out to their sponsoring congregation, which had relocated from New York to Illinois, to discuss cutting ties in New Castle. The request to suppress, or dissolve, the foundation made its way up the chain of command to Rome.

The move has been stressful and exhausting, except for cat Gina who enjoys rummaging through boxes.

Sister Mary Grace, the eldest at 82, recently had a knee replacement and needs one more. She hopes this is her final move.

 "The next stop," she says, thumbs-up to the sky.

But she also looks forward to the next step on her journey. The ambitious prioress in Illinois has promised her a studio and gallery space. Her work is also sold at a gallery owned by a Catholic couple in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In their new digs, the sisters expect to interact more with the friars, who have established communities in Chicago and St. Louis, Missouri. They hope another order of nuns will take up residence in New Castle and continue operating the gift shop, which will no longer display Sister Mary Grace's divinely inspired creations.

Each sister has a distinct personality. Sister Mary Grace is the creative free spirit, Strohminger said, while Sister Emmanuella models the spirit of St. Dominic as she teaches postulants. Sister Mary Columba Brienza, meanwhile, remains steadfast in her vision. 

Both Sisters Mary Grace and Mary Columba lived at a Cincinnati monastery before it shuttered. The weepy send-off reminded them of a funeral procession.  

"We are only a prayer away," Sister Mary Columba said at the time.

Even the worthiest of experiments sometimes end in failure, she knows. The New Castle nuns have no regrets. This year, their fig tree began bearing fruit.

"We opened a door that needed to be open," Sister Mary Columba says.

Contact Margie Fishman at 302-324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.