Matthew Alderman reports on the New Liturgical Movement:
One of the most exciting new projects to come into the firm during this time is a new design for a monastery in Wisconsin. It will be the new home of the nuns of Valley of Our Lady Monastery. It has been a great pleasure to be a member of the design team working on this project.Alderman also designed the new St. Paul's Student Center in Madison. I found out at the recent Knights of Divine Mercy that the Student Center had to be scaled back not because of funding, but because the city council rejected such a large and beautiful building intruding on the existing campus "architecture."
This is also the order that was disenfranchised in a recent state court election. They are Cistercian like the Laser Monks were. I think at least one of the Laser Monk priests was assigned here to serve the sisters. Here's a video of the nuns chanting. Fr. Z reported a while back that they celebrate ad orientem, not to mention their vocations were booming. There was I think other videos of the sisters that the LaserMonks took down after their closure. They are well known for sustaining themselves by making altar bread.
Back to the article, currently the sisters reside in Prairie du Sac, in the Diocese of Madison. It doesn't say where exactly the new site is, but their website gives us this tidbit:
The property for the new monastery is located in South-Western Wisconsin in the Diocese of Madison. These 229 acres in rural Iowa County are part of the Driftless Area, a region geologically renowned for being consistently missed by advancing glaciers over the millennia. As a result of this freedom from glaciation, the diverse and dramatic terrain preserves much of the topography of Wisconsin prior to the Glacial Period. The famous bluffs, rock outcroppings, caves and coulees boast a history of over 100 million years and provide a refuge for a rare community of plants and wildlife.That would be a little southwest of their current site. Interesting, I drove past here after Knights of Divine Mercy last Friday without even realizing the sisters location.
And get this:
One of the largest projects undertaken by the firm in recent years, it is, to my knowledge, the first new traditional ecclesiastical project to draw on the simplicity and balance of Cistercian monastic architecture, and the first ever undertaken in the United States.Save the monasteries, save the world.
Read the whole article over at New Liturgical Movement
The sisters also have details over at their website(navigation is a little quirky).
They also have a photo gallery online of their visit to the new site.
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8 comments:
Thank You God!
so nice to see. The Cistercian project and the St. Paul's project are really complimentary in so many great ways. The monastery being a place of much silent contemplation and the student center on state street, so near the campus and the capitol being a place bringing Christ to the world. Both carrying out the Mission of the Church in their own ways.
Maybe I missed it but did you ever write up a post about how it all went with the famous (infamous?) laser monks. They fell off the face of the earth it seems?
This is a good community! There will now be yet another pilgrimage site in Wisconsin - the land of saints.
Fun fact: They live on Yanke Drive. :)
Not sure about the "first ever" in the US. The Clear Creek abbey in OK is a traditional ecclesiastical monastery as well. I guess it would how you parse the sentence. The Clear Creek monks are Benedictine, and all Cisterians are Benedictine.
But goods news just the same.
Anon: I did try to follow it, but nobody else had much coverage so it would have required me to do real reporting. http://badgercatholic.blogspot.com/search/label/Laser%20Monks
Terry.... well, we are also home to some of the worst priest/child abuse crimes...
Cassandra, I believe it reads: first Cistercian monastic architecture project ever undertaken in the United States
Still not true. There are a number of Cistercian monasteries in the country. The New Melleray Abbey in Dubuque has nearly the identical layout for their monastery, but they are Novus Ordo. So I think the architect is overplaying himself.
BUT, the important thing is that the nuns succeed in the project and prosper in vocations.
Cassandra: those are Trappist monasteries--Cistercian monasteries of the strict observance. Usually "Cistercian" refers to the non-reformed monasteries (non Trappist).
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