Religious
Life
Methodist woman founds monastery
Most Protestants don’t know much about monasticism or about
Benedictine spirituality. But once they meet Mary Stamps, all that changes.
Stamps crisscrosses Minnesota lecturing and giving retreats to Protestants --
most of them United Methodists -- who receive her warmly. That’s not
surprising. Stamps is proof that one can be a devout Protestant and a monk at
the same time.
She’s an involved member of New Horizon United Methodist
Church in St. Cloud, Minn., where she sings in the choir. She is also the
foundress of St. Brigid of Kildare Monastery for women, located on property
owned by St. John’s Abbey of Collegeville, Minn.
Stamps has lived at the monastery -- a simple house surrounded by
woods, fields, a garden and birdfeeders -- for three years. She made her final
profession as a Benedictine monk on St. Brigid’s feast Feb. 1, 2001,
taking vows of stability, obedience and fidelity to the monastic way of life as
set out in the rule of Benedict.
The call to establish the first monastery for women in the
Methodist tradition came after 15 years of prayerful discernment, she told
NCR. While studying for her doctorate at the United Methodist Seminary
at Emory University in Atlanta, Stamps lived two years with the Benedictine
Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Mo., and two years with Benedictine
nuns at Holy Family Convent in Albany, Minn.
In 1987 and 1988 she had the chance to participate frequently in
the Liturgy of the Hours while pursuing monastic studies and living on campus
at St. John’s University in Collegeville. At that time she met Benedictine
Fr. Timothy Kelly, who became her professor and spiritual director. Stamps was
surprised to learn that Kelly was working with a group of Methodists who were
considering how the United Methodist church might establish a monastic
community.
Even more providential than her own contacts with Benedictines,
Stamps said, was the fact that two of her professors at Emory were oblates of
Benedictine monasteries. Roberta Bondi is a member of St. Benedict’s
Monastery in St. Joseph, Minn., and Don Saliers was an oblate of St.
John’s Abbey.
The oblate population has “boomed,” spreading
Benedictine spirituality through-out the world, Stamps said, pointing to the
just-released book, Benedict in the World, co-edited by Bondi and
Benedictine Sr. Linda Kulver of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph,
and published by the Liturgical Press. The book portrays 19 monastic oblates,
including Dorothy Day, writer Walker Percy, Christian Family Movement leaders
Patrick and Patricia Crowley and French philosopher Jacques Maritain, his wife,
Raissa, and her sister, Vera, and Emerson Hynes, a political science professor
at St. John’s University and a political adviser to the 1968 presidential
campaign of Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a peace party candidate. Also St. Henry II
who became holy Roman emperor in 1002, and Frances of Rome, a 15th-century
visionary who attempted to set up a monastery for oblates.
St. Brigid’s oblate group has grown to 16 members since the
dedication of the monastery on St. Brigid’s feast in 2000. Besides Stamps,
it counts another 13 United Methodists, one Catholic and one Disciples of
Christ member. The ages of group members range from 23 to 82. One-third of them
are men; half are ordained. The community continues to grow.
Not all the oblates live close to the monastery. In September,
Stamps, along with another member, conducted a short ceremony by phone for the
reception of an oblate novice. The candidate lives in Pennsylvania, where
Stamps had already sent her a copy of the Rule of Benedict and asked her to
accept it as a guide for living the Christian life.
Naming the monastery in honor of St. Brigid (451-525), a
contemporary of St. Benedict (480-547), was Stamps’ choice. “Brigid
is a threshold figure,” who helped bring religion to women in Ireland and
who founded the first monastery for women -- as well as others for women and
men -- in the generation after St. Patrick.
Stamps said she finds following the rhythm of prayer and work and
living the Rule of Benedict to be liberating. “God is so much integrated
into my thinking,” she said. She prays with the monks of the abbey or with
the sisters at St. Benedict’s frequently and encourages local oblates to
join one or the other group of Benedictines for prayer at least once a week.
Oblates join her for prayer, scriptural reflections and retreats at the
monastery.
She is currently involved with a core group of United Methodists
who are looking at how formation in a Benedictine monastic context might affect
the formation and spirituality of United Methodists. As a Benedictine monk and
a loyal follower of Methodist founder John Wesley, Stamps hopes she can share
the monastic spirit with many more Protestant Christians.
-- Patricia Lefevere
National Catholic Reporter, February 21,
2003
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