50th Anniversary of Santa Rita Abbey

Santa Rita Abbey is celebrating three jubilees in 2022! First off, February 6, was the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the monastery of Our Lady of the Santa Rita Mountains. Next, in April, is our Sr. Clare’s 70th anniversary of vows, and in December, is our Mother Vicki’s 50th anniversary of vows.



Our Foundation
It was on Sunday, February 6, 1972 that our six foundresses, accompanied by Rev. Mother Angela Norton, abbess of Mt. St. Mary’s Abbey in Massachusetts, landed at the Tucson airport and traveled the fifty miles to their new home, Our Lady of the Santa Rita Mountains, in Sonoita, Arizona.

We’d love to invite you to come celebrate with us, but since Covid-19 still has the world in its grip, we are postponing public celebration of this joyous occasion to 2023. In the meantime, we plan to celebrate digitally by sharing photos and history of our 50 years through our website, email newsletter, and social media (@santaritaabbey), throughout the year.
 

Our Sisters’ Jubilees

Among our group of foundresses were Sister Clare and novice Sister Vicki. What a happy coincidence that their 70th and 50th anniversaries of monastic profession (vows) also occur in this year of 2022!

Pictured here: Mother Beverly, our prioress from 1990 – 2000, Sr. Clare and Sr. Vicki on Feb 6, 1991.

Sister Clare has been a Trappistine nun for over 70 years. She entered our motherhouse, Mt. St. Mary's Abbey, Wrentham, MA, in 1950 as their first lay sister postulant. There she learned to milk cows, to cook dinner for upwards of 50 hungry nuns, and when the Decree of Unification came after Vatican II, senior lay Sister Clare led the lay sisters into the choir and learned to sing Gregorian chant. In 1972 Sr. Clare was chosen as one of the six founding sisters for our monastery of Our Lady of the Santa Rita Mountains in Sonoita, Arizona. Her love of Jesus and her dedication to prayer have been invaluable in all the ups and downs of the monastic life, not to mention her sense of adventure and her sense of humor! Now in her 90's, Sr. Clare's body has slowed down, but her love of Jesus and of the community is as strong as ever. Thank you, Sr. Clare, for persevering in this life-long adventure called the consecrated life!

Sister Vicki was one of the brave group of nuns sent into the Wild West (southern Arizona) by our motherhouse in 1972. Sr. Vicki was the youngest of the group and still in the novitiate. She fell in love with Sonoita, AZ at first sight and continues to love our community and our environment with all her heart. It was here that she made her temporary vows at the end of 1972, followed by her solemn vows in 1978. After serving as our subprioress and novice mistress for many years, Sr. Vicki was elected by the community to be our prioress in 2012. She was re-elected in 2018. Her selflessness in caring for her sisters and her spiritual vision of everyone and everything as a burning bush of God's presence are a great gift to all of us. Thank you, Mother Vicki, for your dedication to Jesus and to the community!
 

Our Order in 2022

Meanwhile, our Order, the Cistercians of the Strict Observance (a.k.a. the Trappists) plans to hold not only one, but two general chapters in Italy this year. General chapters are attended by all the abbots and abbesses of our international order. There would have been one in September 2020, but Covid-19 made that impossible. Plans were made for September 2021, but that also was cancelled. Now the Order is aiming for two chapters in one year, in February and in September. The first of these, the February 7 – 17 General Chapter, has just concluded. The first order of business was to elect a new abbot general which the Chapter did on February 11: Dom Bernardus Peeters. Until the moment of his election, Dom Bernardus was abbot of Our Lady of Koningshoeven/Tilburg in the Netherlands. 

Please join us in praying for God’s blessing upon him as he takes up his new responsibilities. For a glimpse of the general chapter and other information, visit the general news page on our Order’s website at https://ocso.org/category/general-news/