Sacred Places and Artwork in our Monastery

WINDOW OF VISION
This stained glass window was created and installed in the Girard House dining room by John and Mary Scanlon in 2008. A piece of purple glass with an unusual image in its coloring the resembled a Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth was the inspiration for its creation. This gift and its presence in our house offers inspiration and hope.

PEACE POLE*
Around the year of 1998 we planted a peace pole in our backyard at the Fremont House. One of our Visitation Neighbors, Paulette Sankofa, had a project to spread these peace poles throughout our neighborhood. She knew that being a gentle presence was our focus as it was hers: An alternative to violence around us.

CRUCIFIX*
The bronze crucifix, created by our artist-friend Rob Nicpon, is in our chapel at Fremont. Having worked on it for several months in our monastery, he felt that it had a life of its own with us. He gave it the title: That We May Live. The stories around this crucifix abound.*
STAINED GLASS WINDOW IN THE CHAPEL
Donated to us by the artist Ditriech Spaun, and hung by him in our chapel on Fremont behind the Crucifix, this window could depict a flame, a flower, a dancer. For each one who gazes at it, it is a symbol that draws one into mystery.

A VISITATION
Brother Michael McGrath, OSFS, who created for us the “Windsock Visitation” that hangs in the Fremont living room, also created a Visitation that hangs in the stairwell at Girard. The women in the painting could be of any ethnic background. He had heard that the initial experience of pregnancy is like a butterfly, here depicted under Mary’s heart.

CHRISTMAS CRECHE
Soon after we had arrived in north Minneapolis, we received a gift from Brother de Paul, who was a tireless worker in Haiti. This creche, carved from one piece of wood in Haiti’s worst slum, has been the centerpiece for every Christmas celebration since then. Ask Sr. Mary Frances Reis why she likes this carving so much; she would love to tell you!

CRUCIFIX IN THE DINING ROOM AT FREMONT
A most precious gift to us from our St. Louis Community as three of the sister left there to come to Minneapolis, is this wood crucifix. It was probably carved by a prisoner in jail where our monastary chaplain was also a chaplain, so somehow this crucifix was in the sacristy for many years. What happened to the prisoner that he did not finish the work? There is no insignia and no crown of thorns. On the back is written a prayer by St. Francis de Sales and signed by of the members of the community at the time.