1947 Chronicles (1): Our First Glimpse
On a chilly January morning, fifteen sisters boarded a bus in Summit, New Jersey and headed toward North Guilford, Connecticut. Although they did not know what awaited them in the rural countryside, they were filled with a radical trust that the Lord would provide all that they needed to make the humble homestead their new monastery.
Fifteen Founding Sisters on the Morning of their Arrival in North Guilford – Jan 21, 1947
“At a quarter to seven on January twenty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, the Feast of Saint Agnes, Martyr, a large interstate bus quietly pulled out of the driveway of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey. Its occupants, besides the driver, were our mother foundress, Mother Mary of Jesus Crucified, and the fourteen Sisters whom she had chosen to be co-foundresses with her of the Monastery of Our Lady of Grace in North Guilford, Connecticut. Being winter, it was still dark outside and a light rain was just beginning to fall. After the last Sister was safely inside the bus and, just before closing the door, Father Gabriel Moore, O.P., our future Chaplain, gave us his blessing with a promise to meet us with his car in New Haven to direct us on the last few miles to North Guilford. It seemed appropriate to have his blessing on the way – a presage of the future family spirit of our new monastery.
“As our bus slipped out of the driveway, there was scarcely a chance to look back to see, for the last time, the beautiful stone monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary – the cradle of our religious life...”
The home the sisters left behind at Our Lady of the Rosary, Summit, NJ
“As our bus slipped out of the driveway, there was scarcely a chance to look back to see, for the last time, the beautiful stone monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary – the cradle of our religious life. Most of our foundation preparations had been made in secret, known only by the necessary few and directed by Bishop Thomas Boland. We did not say goodbye to our Sisters who were remaining in Summit; this was to spare them and ourselves the pangs of parting. There would be five long hours of driving before we were to reach our new home and, as we left, Mother began the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. We continued the Rosary on the way, Mother permitting us to rest between decades. During these intervals, we gaily talked and laughed, wondering what our new home would be like and what our dear Sisters were doing in the home that we had just left. We kept asking Sister Mary Damien, our Sacristan, to take her watch out and tell us what time it was – then we would say, ‘Now they are at breakfast, now they are at Chapter, now they are at work, etc.’
“We met Father Moore at the New Haven Railroad Station and he, driving his car before our bus, led the way to North Guilford. We arrived at quarter to twelve. On the trip, our bus driver had proven to be as chivalrous as a knight of old: He had stopped the bus once on the way so that we could all relax and, we were told later, that he waited outside with his giant bus for some time after Mother had laughingly showed her tired and startled children into the drab, green-shingled building that was to be the Monastery of Our Lady of Grace. He waited, we were told, because he had a suspicion that some might not like it and would wish to go back to New Jersey! This suspicion was occasioned, no doubt, by our exclamations of dismay upon our first glimpse of the Chittendon Homestead.
The Chittendon Farmhouse
“Upon our arrival, our Sacristan immediately began to prepare the temporary altar, Father vested, and, at a quarter after twelve in the afternoon, the first Holy Mass was offered in the tiny living room of our farmhouse monastery. So, the first food with which we were nourished in our new home was the Bread of Angels—He for Whose sake we had left all things dear to us in order to found a new home for Him—the first cloistered monastery of perpetual Adoration in Connecticut.
“This oak paneled living room, with its immense field-stone fireplace, turned out, by a happy coincidence, to have been the only room in the house which had just been freshly painted. We found later a perfect cross in the floor…the cross was set in perfect octagonal inlay. Had this also been done “by chance” when the oak floor had been laid a hundred years before? The sturdy handmade, oak-paneled doors were hinged with the quaint “H & L” hinges, dating back to the Puritan days, which symbolized the words “Holy Lord.” As St. Catherine of Siena has said, “nothing happens without mystery,” and these little external signs convinced us that God himself had chosen this room for our first chapel. This first Holy Mass, so arranged by Divine Providence, was perhaps one of the most fervent and grace-filled of our lives—God seemed so close, the confusion and disorder that we had glimpsed in our farmhouse were forgotten, and Father and we humbly thanked God for our safe arrival and offered ourselves without reserve for whatever hardships our new foundation would offer…”
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