Jonathan Rosato, 30, took on the challenge of building his own modern farmhouse this year. But the Holy Trinity Church parishioner included materials that few can boast: doors from a Benedictine monastery.
Rosato grew up attending elementary school at All Saints Catholic School in Manassas with his two siblings in the 1990s and early 2000s. At the time, the school did not have enough room and used several classrooms at Linton Hall School in Bristow, next to the St. Benedict Monastery where the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia lived. Rosato remembered going to Mass with the sisters in the monastery chapel while Holy Trinity Church was under construction.
Earlier this year, the Benedictine sisters held an estate sale at the old monastery as they prepared to move into the new St. Benedict Monastery.
“Our original intention was to sell all the furnishings that we didn’t have space for or need for in the new monastery,” said Sister Kay Fitzgerald, supervisor of the sale.
Rosato, a construction supervisor for Ryan Homes, a home construction company, preparing to build his new house when a friend told him about the estate sale.
“When I came back, and they were having their estate sale all of these years later, I remembered some of the sisters from way back when. It was so cool: (it was) the same building that I had gone to Mass in as a kid,” he said.
Rosato purchased 12 doors, trim and baseboards from the old monastery’s St. Scholastica building.
“I think at first they were a little bit surprised that somebody was willing to go to the lengths to take out these old doors,” he said. “But they seemed pretty excited.”
“I got personally very excited,” Sister Kay said. “In Jonathan’s case, he grew up in this monastic environment, in this chapel, in this building.”
Rosato said he even purchased and repurposed the original chapel doors with stained-glass windows. Each door weighs nearly 200 pounds, he said.
Rosato worked to reconfigure the house’s doorways to fit the doors with handyman Jonathan Dubois. With the help of his friends Christian Kleb and John Paul McLaughlin, he took great care to transport the doors from the monastery to the work site.
“We had to carefully remove everything and keep it in its place so that when we put the doors in, the trim around the doors would fit when we put it back on. It was a meticulous process to take everything off, transport it, store it and literally reframe the house to fit these doors,” Rosato said.
Rosato and his crew broke ground for the new house last April. Minus a few last touches, Rosato completed construction in October. His father Mario, Rosato’s fiancée, Natalie Grim, and four Benedictine sisters visited the new home Nov. 18.
“The nuns seemed overjoyed that we were able to keep a part of their history intact,” Rosato said. “To see them in the house and see the doors restored was a very meaningful moment. I hope to continue to have them over for dinners or tea in the future.”
