Benedictine Sisters bid farewell

Intermountain Catholic

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Benedictine Sister Stephanie Mongeon (left) says goodbye to the Wooden family at the June 9 open house. SEE MORE PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK.IC photo/Christine Young

OGDEN — The Sisters of Saint Benedict sponsored an open house at Holy Family Parish June 9 to bid farewell and to thank the community for their support. Last year after much discernment and prayer, the sisters chose to merge with their founding monastery in Minnesota and are returning there.

Ogden Regional Medical Center also hosted a farewell open house June 4.

"We expected a big crowd, but we were actually overwhelmed," said Craig Beliek, Ogden Regional Medical Center marketing director. "The Sisters’ contributions have been invaluable and so numerous that I couldn’t even add them up. They have been the soul of this hospital and have guided our mission of caring for the sick as if they were Christ in person. They are an irreplaceable element in our community. Our hospital is very dedicated to seeing their mission through to the very end, and we want to make sure their spirit and vision remain at the hospital even though they will not be here."

The first three Benedictine Sisters arrived in Ogden in 1944 to oversee construction of St. Benedict’s Hospital. It was open from 1946 to 1977, when a larger facility was built near Washington Terrace; it later became Ogden Regional Medical Center.

The open house at Holy Family Parish "was an opportunity for us to thank people for all they have done for us over the years," said Sister Danile Knight, monastery spokesperson. "But like the open house at the hospital, it was their opportunity to thank us for all that we have done and it was a mutual gratitude experience. It was wonderful and they stood in line for over an hour at both occasions, but they said, ‘Oh, you’re worth it.’ It was a good experience for us and for them.

"People were telling us they will hate to see us go, and it will never be the same," said Sr. Danile. "But they have been very understanding in knowing that this is what has to happen."

Trappist Father Alan Hohl from the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville said, "It’s sad the sisters are leaving; it’s a tragedy they don’t have any young people to take over."

For Yvonne Ulloa Coiner, St. Benedict’s Foundation executive director, the sisters are all the important women in her life rolled into one; they have become family, she said.

Coiner met the sisters in the early 1990s.

"I never realized how much I needed them in my life and that I needed to be around women who are so willing to give to others their time," she said. "I’m sad and I will miss them, but I am content because they have given so much of themselves to me, as they have everybody else in this community. I will never forget the opportunity they have given me to work in their foundation and to represent them in the community."

Margaret Stireman, a parishioner at Saint Olaf, was born in the old St. Benedict’s Hospital and grew up in Ogden. Her aunt is a Benedictine sister, so she visited the local sisters often, she said. "We used to hike behind the old hospital and then go inside the hospital and Sister Stephanie (Mongeon) would have cookies and milk with us. I remember feeling the love from her and the other sisters."

Catharina Wooden, 11, a St. James parishioner, said Sr. Stephanie is really fun and nice and Sr. Danile is a good listener.

Claudia Branch, a St. Rose of Lima parishioner, remembers Sr. Stephanie offering support, inspiration, nutritional information and positive encouragement to breast cancer survivors at Ogden Regional Medical Center.

Kay Lipman remembers the Western Hole Down golf fund-raiser for St. Benedict’s foundation and "Sr. Stephanie coming in a golf cart with her magic cookies to give players relief from a bad lie."

Joan Sullivan, a Benedictine Oblate, said she is looking forward to September when she and other oblates will travel to St. Joseph, Minn., for a meeting and will see the sisters again.

Six sisters came from Minnesota to help the sisters pack: they began leaving on June 10. The moving van will pack up the rest of their belongings on June 17, and the remaining sisters will leave then.

The monastery is still on the market, said Sr. Danile.