by Therese Horvat
Special to The Leaven
ATCHISON — With hospitality a hallmark of their spirituality and lives, the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica here have welcomed countless guests across the years. March’s observance of Women’s History Month affords the opportunity to highlight six of those visitors who have had widespread and lasting impact for the good.
St. Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini
At the time of the 1946 canonization of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini as the first U.S. citizen named a saint, a news article recounted the Italian missionary’s visit to Mount St. Scholastica likely in 1902. In the article, Sister Barbara Schneider, OSB, recalled that she had served Mother Cabrini and her companion at table. Sister Barbara, who died in 1959, remembered the special guest as “reserved and kindly looking, with unforgettable eyes.”
Mother Cabrini was traveling by train from Chicago to Denver when she stopped in Atchison to seek funds from benefactors in support of her ministry. In the same article, another person commented on the “rare quality of Mother Cabrini’s personality.”
Born in Italy in 1850, Mother Cabrini founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1880. She had hoped to serve in China. However, Pope Leo XIII urged her to serve Italian immigrants in the United States.
Mother Cabrini arrived in New York in 1889. By her death in 1917, she had established 67 schools, orphanages and hospitals in the United States, Europe, and Central and South America. She is the patron of immigrants.
Dorothy Day
In early 1936, Dorothy Day spoke at Mount St. Scholastica College, a ministry of the Benedictine Sisters later merged into Benedictine College. In her remarks, Day discussed the Catholic Worker movement and newspaper she had cofounded in New York with Peter Maurin. She also touched on Communism, labor and race issues.
A news account described Day as “perhaps the most active exponent of present-day Catholic Action.” The article said efforts of the Catholic Worker movement aimed “to fulfill literally the doctrine of Christian brotherhood” by establishing hospitality houses for the poor and seeking to save destitute families from eviction. In her remarks, the “unassuming woman” talked rarely of herself but spoke staunchly against Communism.
Several years later, Sister Barbara McCracken, OSB, met Day over lunch at Shalom House, the Catholic Worker ministry in Kansas City, Kansas. Day impressed Sister Barbara as a strong person with deep commitment to the poor and homeless while working for and modeling nonviolent change.
Day died in 1980. In 2000, the cause of her sainthood was initiated and approved. She holds the title “servant of God.”
Catherine de Hueck Doherty
The founder of Friendship Houses serving the poor and the Madonna House Apostolate, Baroness Catherine de Hueck Doherty, visited the Atchison Benedictine community at least twice.
She and her husband Eddie Doherty, a journalist and author, addressed an assembly of Mount College students in 1948. A follow-up article reported: “That the Gospels can be lived in the modern world became the keynote for the baroness, aglow with the zeal of true Catholic Action.” (Russian-born de Hueck Doherty had married a baron at an early age.)
In 1975, de Hueck Doherty published “Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer.” The word “poustinia” means desert in Russian. Her book introduced readers to the Eastern Christian practice of retreating to encounter God.
In 1978, Mother Noreen Hurter, OSB, invited de Hueck Doherty to a long-range planning session for the community. The prioress asked the speaker to reflect on religious life and the place of Benedictine traditions of community and prayer in view of new ministry needs in the church. An internal newsletter summarized that de Hueck Doherty shared her experience in helping those in need and fostering spiritual values.
The social justice advocate and spiritual leader died in 1985. Her cause for canonization was introduced in 2000. She holds the title “servant of God.”
Baroness Maria von Trapp
The hills of Atchison were alive when Baroness Maria von Trapp spoke at the Mount College on Nov. 15, 1966.
She recapped her life and the development of the Trapp Family Singers as told in the 1959 musical and the 1965 film “The Sound of Music.” She said that her family’s story had been altered considerably for audience appeal. In her presentation, she also discussed her involvement with training native islanders in the South Pacific for lay missionary work.
Having been a candidate for the novitiate at a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg, Austria, von Trapp requested a visit with the women in the novitiate at the Mount. Sisters Rita Killackey, OSB, and Anne Shepard, OSB, were in that group. “She wanted to meet just with us,” Sister Rita recalled. She remembers von Trapp as very lively.
Sister Anne, prioress of the Atchison monastery from 2005-17, said this personal visit to the novitiate by a guest was highly unusual due to the religious community’s restrictions at the time. She thought von Trapp wanted to compare notes with her own novitiate experience, which would have likely been more stringent.
St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata
While her layover in Atchison was intended for rest and not publicized in advance, Mother Teresa of Kolkata held audiences enthralled at two different presentations during her brief stay at the Mount monastery. Her simplicity, spirituality and mission to the poor deeply impressed those she met.
Sister Kathleen Egan, OSB, then college librarian and now deceased, was a friend of Mother Teresa and had coordinated her visit to Atchison. Sister Kathleen’s sister, Eileen Egan, a prominent Catholic journalist and activist, had introduced Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day to one another.
Late in the evening of June 9, 1981, Mother Teresa addressed a large gathering of Sisters and Benedictine monks in Atchison. She called for deeper dedication to Jesus by serving the poor. She told of the life and spirituality of the Missionaries of Charity she had founded in 1948.
The next day, Mother Teresa spoke to 80 co-workers of the Missionaries of Charity, individuals who supported the mission of the religious community through prayer and good works. Sister Kathleen described Mother Teresa as a Beatitude Christian and someone who saw Christ in everyone. At the conclusion of her remarks, the future saint greeted each co-worker individually.
Almost 71 years old at the time of her visit to Atchison, Mother Teresa had already worked for years with the poor in Calcutta and expanded her outreach worldwide. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, died in 1997 and was canonized in 2016.
Wangari Maathai
It was a grand homecoming in January 2007, when Mount St. Scholastica College alumna and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai returned to Atchison.
She graduated in 1964 with a degree in biology and established the Green Belt Movement in 1977 in her native Kenya to address deforestation and soil erosion. That movement to plant trees spread around the world. Maathai’s contributions to sustainable development, democracy and peace led to her Nobel Peace Prize recognition in 2004.
Sister Thomasita Homan, OSB, a longtime friend, was among those who nominated her. She and Sister Mary Collins, OSB, prioress at the time and now deceased, traveled to Oslo for the Nobel ceremony.
Upon hearing the radio announcement about the honor, Sister Rita Killackey, OSB, contacted Kansas City news outlets and shared Maathai’s connection with the Benedictine Sisters in Atchison. Sister Judith Sutera, OSB, communications director, was soon fielding calls from local and national media. She recalls, “All in a day’s work — just a day that doesn’t happen very often in one’s life.”
Three years later, Maathai returned to Atchison. At a Mass in her honor in the Mount chapel, the Sisters presented her with an icon of St. Scholastica. A large crowd attended the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s presentation and recognition on the campus of Benedictine College.
Maathai told guests that her experience and education at the Mount gave her the confidence and inspiration to make a difference in the world. Maathai died in 2011.
Fellin Lecture Series
In addition to these special guests, a donation from a family associated with the Benedictine Sisters endowed an annual lecture series featuring distinguished women speakers. The Mary L. Fellin Lecture Series is open to Benedictine College students and the broader community.
Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, advocate against the death penalty, was the first speaker in 1997. Since its inception, the series has welcomed other justice advocates, environmentalists, scientists, and national and international scholars, including Atchison Benedictine Sisters.
