Impact Stories

On an ordinary day in April, the Benedictine Sisters at Benet Hill Monastery in Colorado Springs, Colorado, woke to discover their home had been broken into the night before.

The Sisters needed a new oil tank quickly – snow was in the forecast and temperatures were in the single digits.

In order to keep her and other Sisters safe at home, the congregation realized they needed an exterior door-locking system – and soon.

“It was awful not to be able to hear, but now that’s over with,” Sister Eileen Houlihan said.

Laughter echoed in the newly-renovated gathering room at the Assisi House, and the smell of cinnamon lingered in the air. On a recent Wednesday in March, Sisters at the retirement convent for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, were making “Irish potatoes” — a traditional Philadelphia confection. Wearing plastic gloves, the Sisters carefully rolled the coconut…

Thanks to a 2015 grant from SOAR!, the Benedictine Sisters of St. Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul, Minnesota were able to purchase equipment to help aging Sisters stand safely and securely. Ten Sisters live in the healthcare center at the Monastery and some require assistance getting out of bed or standing up from a chair. The new Smart…

Thanks to a grant from SOAR!, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, were finally able to fix a leak and restore two handicap showers.

  The doors at the Franciscan Villa in Syracuse, New York, were heavy. The hefty doors were difficult to open and close, especially for Sisters using a cane, walker or wheelchair. And while every detail at the new home region house for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities was designed to build…

For four nights and three days, 85 year-old Sister Margaret (Peg) Geary was trapped inside a broken-down elevator.

This is an excerpt from a letter to SOAR! from Sister Katie McNamara, O.C.S.O., from the Mount Saint Mary’s Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts – a monastic community of some 50 Trappistine nuns.