MOTHER BENEDICTA RIEPP

(Part One)

Mother Benedicta (Sybilla) Riepp was born two hundred years ago, on June 28, 1825, in Waal, Bavaria. In 1844, she entered St. Walburg Convent in Eichstatt, Bavaria, and received the name Benedicta. She taught in the girls’ school in Eichstatt during the eight years she lived there and served as the novice director. She made her solemn vows on July 9, 1849.

In 1852, at age 27, she answered a call from her Superior, Mother Edwarda Schnitzer and volunteered to go to America with two of her sisters to minister to German Catholic immigrant families and teach their children. Mother Edwarda had received this urgent request from Abbott Boniface Wimmer, who founded a monastery for monks in Pennsylvania. Mother Edwarda complied and sent three Sisters from St. Walburg’s to cross the stormy Atlantic: Sister Benedicta Riepp, Sister Walburga Dietrich and Sister Maura Flieger. Over the course of their three-week journey aboard the Washington, they narrowly missed large icebergs that would have crashed into the ship’s hull and caused it to sink (a precursor to the Titanic!). The passage became so turbulent with rain and high seas that at one point the ship nearly capsized. Heavy pallets of luggage were thrown overboard to keep the vessel afloat. Sister Benedicta was terribly seasick. One beautiful anecdote is that the Sisters allegedly pleaded that the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary they were transporting to America be lowered into the sea on a rope, and then the storm subsided. They arrived in New York City on July 8, 1852. Abbott Wimmer had forgotten to arrange some necessary paperwork to establish their residency at St. Mary’s and so the Sisters were delayed for a time. They initially stayed at the Shakespeare Hotel in New York. The Sisters spoke no English, so it was nearly impossible for them to make their way on their own to rural Latrobe, Pennsylvania by train. It was a complicated 400-mile journey through remote areas. It took them four days to arrive at their final destination: a rustic cabin. They had left their cloistered life of prayer in a castle-like monastery in the hills of Bavaria to arrive at a “small, dilapidated frame house in a Pennsylvania wilderness clearing.” [1]

The Sisters endured poverty, extreme hunger and lived in a small building that was inadequate for them to carry out their mission “to instruct young girls, and to spread the Benedictine Order in this part of the world.” They focused on keeping the horarium to recite the Divine Office, rising each day at 3:30 am to begin the sequence of prayers, Mass, Adoration, with breaks for spiritual reading. Mother Benedicta wrote to the Ludwig-Missionsverein in Bavaria to request funds to build a new convent building. In the early months of their arrival at St. Mary’s, King Ludwig had sent 8000 florins in financial assistance for their support, but these funds were diverted by Abbot Wimmer for his own use at St. Vincent’s men’s monastery. While the Sisters nearly starved and often had only bread and water for their meals, Abbot Wimmer greedily siphoned away their sustenance. During their first winter at St. Mary’s, the cold and hunger became so overwhelming that they almost gave up and returned to Eichstatt. “They had packed and were awaiting the wagon to come and take them to the train station. While they were waiting, the bell rang to announce the hour for the Divine Office. Since there was no one else in the house who would have rung the bell, they were startled. A few moments passed and Mother Benedicta spoke: ‘Sisters, this is no ordinary happening, but a plain manifestation of God’s will that he desires the Divine Office to go on in this place. Let us take off our traveling clothes and in God’s name make the best of things.’”[2]

When they opened St. Mary’s school in the fall, they taught 60-80 students during the day in these same close quarters. In addition, by the end of their first year, they had accepted 12 novices to live and work with them in their cramped space. Their membership continued to increase, but it took eight years before they received the funding from King Ludwig for a second building. Mother Benedicta served as the Superior of St. Mary’s for six years, and was known for her strict adherence to the Rule of Benedict, but also for her kindness and love for her young novices.

            Due to ongoing clashes with Abbott Wimmer about the jurisdiction for St. Mary’s, Mother Benedicta returned to St. Walburg’s in Eichstatt for clarification regarding questions of the ultimate authority over the new monastery, and finally she appealed to Rome. She requested that St. Mary’s remain independent from the motherhouse of St. Walburg’s in Eichstatt and not under the self-seeking control of Abbot Wimmer. When she returned to the US, Wimmer had her removed as Superior of St. Mary’s and instructed other Sisters to avoid her. She was shunned and ostracized by the Community she had founded. One can only imagine the pain she endured by this rejection and injustice. She lived for a time at the convent in Erie, Pennsylvania and finally traveled to St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1858 to live with the new Community at the invitation of Mother Willibalda Scherbauer, OSB. Mother Benedicta was in fragile health and looking for a place to rest. She died of tuberculosis on March 15, 1862, at the age of 36. Her remains were eventually moved to St. Benedict’s Monastery in 1884 and buried in the cemetery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Because of her heroic efforts, the Benedictine monasteries in the United States have remained independent institutions, answering only to their local parish dioceses and bishops.

The three Sisters who came to America to found St. Mary’s in Pennsylvania and later St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, always said Yes to God, despite the great hardships and discomfort they faced. When one truly renounces one’s own will to carry out God’s will, there is no other path. To do God’s will brings great joy and sometimes great suffering. God provided for these first Sisters and continues to provide for us so abundantly. Never could Mother Benedicta Riepp, Sister Walburga Dietrich and Sister Maura Flieger have known how their deep faith and hard work would grow and flourish into the Benedictine Order in North America, with 47 Monasteries and hundreds of Sisters ministering in the Catholic schools, parishes and hospitals for 170 years, caring for and inspiring so many with examples of faith in action. We are forever indebted to them. (Part 2 of this article will be available in the June edition of the Monastery Monthly).

[1] Ephrem Hollermann, OSB, Like a Mustard Seed, A History of the First Benedictine Women’s Monastery in North America, The Federation of Saint Scholastica, 2022, p. 32.

[2] Ibid., p. 41.