Global InformationBenedictine Sisters of Elk County information
The Benedictines Sisters of Elk County were a religious congregation established in Marienstadt, Pennsylvania in 1852 by three sisters from Saint Walburge Abbey in Bavaria. There they established St. Joseph Monastery, the first convent of Benedictine Sisters in North America. They opened a school for girls, St. Benedict Academy, and in 1933 expanded their apostolate into healthcare, becoming the owner and operator of Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital in St. Marys.
Daughter houses were established in Erie, Pennsylvania (Mount St. Benedict Monastery - 1856), Newark, New Jersey (St. Gertrude Monastery - 1857), and St. Cloud, Minnesota (Saint Benedict's Monastery) which became separate congregations in their own right.
Over time the members of the congregation aged while fewer candidates entered the community; the monastery itself was in need of repair. In January 2014, the 17 nuns remaining voted to dissolve the community. They then dispersed to either assisted living facilities or to some other Benedictine monasteries.
The Benedictines Sisters of Elk County are the foundational community of the Congregation of St. Scholastica, a federation of the monasteries which trace their heritage to St. Joseph Monastery,