History
North Guilford, CT, Founded 1947
Our Founding
Fire & Rebuilding
Foundation in Kenya
Our Lady of Grace Today
Founding & Growth
On January 21, 1947, Mother Mary and fourteen other sisters moved from Summit to North Guilford and with much labor and sacrifice – by God’s mercy and grace – transformed the property donated for the foundation, with its old house and barns, into a working monastery. On February 10, 1951, the community had the privilege of professing Solemn Vows, thus effecting their transition from Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary to the more rigorous life of the Nuns of the Second Order; to this day, our community continues to commemorate this anniversary with joy and thanksgiving.
The Monastery of Our Lady of Grace in North Guilford, Connecticut was founded in 1947 by Mother Mary of Jesus Crucified (1892-1978). Originally from the Monastery of the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary in Union City, New Jersey, she was chosen to help found Our Lady of the Rosary Monastery in Summit, New Jersey in 1919. Then, almost thirty years later, she led the new foundation of Our Lady of Grace Monastery North Guilford, Connecticut.
Fire of 1955
After only a few years of existence, the original monastery burned to the ground on December 23, 1955. After the night office, as most of the sisters were retiring, a fire ignited in the wall between the sacristy and the chapel. Due to the inexpensive materials of which the building was constructed, the fire spread rapidly and efforts to extinguish the flames were futile. While most of the nuns made it through the smoke unharmed, a head count revealed one sister missing, who was infirm. Two nuns asked and received permission to re-enter the burning monastery to rescue her. All three were overcome with smoke and died in the blaze. One of the volunteers, Sister Mary Dolores of the Holy Angels, O.P., had made her solemn profession just ten days before.
Amidst the rubble, two charred fragments were found: one from a prayer for priests which read, “Whose lives burn out before thy consecrated shrine. . . have only human hearts and human frailty.”; the other was a shred from the Missal which read, “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus.”
“Whose lives burn out before thy consecrated shrine... have only human hearts with human frailty.”
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Gospel of John 15:13
New Monastery
Our current monastery and chapel were built over the remains of our sisters who perished in the fire of 1955. Construction began on February 11, 1957, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Contractors worked with haste to prepare the monastery while keeping the costs down. On Easter Monday, April 7, 1958, the nuns quietly left their interim lodging, graciously arranged by Archbishop O’Brien, in West Haven, Connecticut, and eagerly returned to North Guilford to an only partially-completed building.
The Blessed Sacrament, the center of their lives, was installed on a temporary altar in the parlor, where Mass would be celebrated for the nuns until the chapel would be usable. The new Monastery of Our Lady of Grace – a rectangular building of four wings around a cloister – was solemnly dedicated on the Feast of Our Lady of Grace in the 1958, the year marking the 100th anniversary of the Blessed Mother’s appearances in Lourdes, France.
Foundation in Kenya
In the years following the construction of the new monastery, the community began to enjoy stability and, with an abundance of vocations, began to ponder a new foundation. Hearing that there would be ample interest in a cloistered life of adoration among the religious people of Kenya, and at the request of the Archbishop of Nairobi, the location for the new foundation was to be Nairobi, Kenya. With the assistance of the Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph, who had assignments in Nairobi, Mother Mary Kathleen and another sister traveled to Africa to survey possibilities and the community purchased a 50-acre plot of land in Karen, outside Nairobi. The new foundation was to bear the name Corpus Christi Monastery.
Back in North Guilford, Connecticut, volunteers were solicited from among the sisters and many eagerly responded. On April 30, 1965, twelve nuns embarked from New York City on the SS. Africa Neptune for their nearly month-long journey to their new monastery. The foundation was the second Dominican monastery established in Africa and the first monastery of perpetual adoration in East Africa. God blessed the community with vocations from the local population such that, in time, all the foundresses returned home and today the community is comprised of solely African nuns. Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Connecticut and Corpus Christi Monastery in Nairobi continue to enjoy their communion in the joyful unity of the Dominican family.
