Editor's Desk: The Franciscan Ideal

By Michael F. Flach
Herald Editor
(From the issue of 11/14/02)

The Poor Clare Monastery of Mary, Mother of the Church — which celebrates its silver anniversary this year — is located on a small tract of land in Alexandria that was once part of a large 18^th century plantation and a 19^th century dairy farm. Ludwood Popkins, sold his dairy farm, except for the house and grounds, in 1953. He donated that little portion to the Catholic Church, of which he had recently become a member. The Arlington Diocese in turn donated the tract to the Poor Clares.

The Poor Clares will celebrate 125 years in the United States in December. A small band of five nuns crossed the Atlantic from Rotterdam to Hoboken, N.J., in 1877. They were exiles from their monastery in Dusseldorf, Germany. They were living in Holland on account of the Kulturkampf. Fourteen monasteries in the U.S. and foundations in South America and the Netherlands trace their lineage to the first permanent monastery in Cleveland.

The Alexandria monastery is an offshoot of the monastery in Roswell, N.M., which in turn traces its genealogy to Chicago. Chicago was founded by two of the original band of Cleveland nuns in 1893.

Eight sisters gathered in a wooded clearing on Oct. 7, 1977, to break ground for their new monastery in Alexandria. Attending that historic event were Arlington’s first shepherd, Bishop Thomas J. Welsh, former vicar general Msgr. Justin D. McClunn, former Cathedral rector Msgr. Richard Burke, and Msgr. James W. McMurtrie, then pastor of nearby St. Louis Church.

Mother Mary Francis, founding abbess from Roswell, was there, along with her companion. The eight nuns prayed the Angelus while a small bell hung on a nearby tree was rung. A larger bell transported from Roswell now signals the hours of public prayer. The community has doubled in number. A completed monastery compound, including chapel and novitiate wing, now stand.

The original community spent its first Christmas in Virginia in the convent next to St. Louis Church. Msgr. McMurtrie provided the nuns with a small Christmas tree harvested from the future monastery site on Stonehedge Drive. One of the sisters fashioned a simple manger. Father Hurley, a retired military chaplain, celebrated Midnight Mass in the tiny chapel.

Twenty five years later, the Poor Clares still use the same handmade manger. Friends provide poinsettias and the monastery woods provide all the greenery to decorate every windowsill in the house. Red candles are placed in each window to announce the birth of the Christ Child. The sisters delight in telling Christmas stories, especially the one year when one sister lit an incense stick near the crèche, which was located under a new smoke detector. The fire alarm went off and the novitiate sisters rushed up to the community room to see if everyone was safe. One sister had to phone to call the fire department to stop the fire trucks.

In addition to regular visits by Arlington Bishops John R. Keating and Paul S. Loverde, the monastery has welcomed a distinguished number of prelates over the years, including Cardinal Augustin Mayer, Archbishop Pio Laghi, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, Cardinal James Hickey and, most recently Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo.

Mother Miriam, first elected in 1982, recently was reelected abbess. Under her continuing leadership the Poor Clares look forward to continuing the daily rhythm and practices of cloistered life for years to come. They remain a source of spiritual blessing for the Arlington Diocese and the universal Church.— M.F.F.

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