Timeline of Events
November 11, 1863
Seven Benedictine sisters arrive in Atchison, Kansas, with the purpose of opening a school for girls. Foundress Mother Evangelista Kremmeter is pictured below.
December 1863
Mount St. Scholastica Academy is opened.
1877
The sisters purchase Price Villa at a private auction and move the Academy and the community there. The building was renamed St. Cecilia’s.
The first mission is established outside of Atchison: Sisters go out to live and teach in Seneca, Kansas. The sisters spread to other towns in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado on teaching missions.
1900
The monastery and choir chapel, still in use today, are built.
1904-1906
Mount St. Scholastica receives eight Benedictine sisters from France, who are refugees from the 1904 expulsion of priests and religious in that country.
1922
A work in progress since 1878, The Vatican approved the Constitution of the Congregation of Saint Scholastica, granting official approbation to the group of 10 monasteries in seven states. The name was changed to Federation of St. Scholastica in 1974 and, in 2022, to the Monastic Congregation of St. Scholastica, now with 17 member monasteries.
1923
Mount St. Scholastica College opens.
1939
St. Scholastica chapel is built to serve the needs of the sisters and students at Mount St. Scholastica College.
1944
Mount sisters established their first daughterhouse, Monasterio de San Benito, in Mexico City. It became an independent monastery in 1950.
1949
Donnelly College, a ministry of Mount St. Scholastica, opens in Kansas City, Kansas.
1952
The sisters establish a daughterhouse, St. Lucy’s Priory, in Glendora, California. It becomes independent in 1956.
1960
Another daughterhouse, Benet Hill Priory, opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It becomes independent in 1965.
1963
Mount St. Scholastica celebrates its centennial year. Sister Mary Faith Schuster writes the community history, The Meaning of the Mountain.
1964
Sisters establish a daughterhouse, Mosteiro Santa Maria Mãe de Deus, in Mineiros Goias, Brazil.
1971
Mount St. Scholastica College merges with St. Benedict’s College to form Benedictine College.
The Annex, later to be renamed Dooley Center, opens.
1980
The organization Benedictines for Peace is founded.
1990
The Mount Community Center is established in the former Administration Building, to provide spiritual, educational, cultural and social needs of the area.
1992
The Benedictine Center for Spirituality becomes the Sophia Spirituality Center.
1994
The Benedictine Volunteer Program begins, offering lay people an opportunity to serve with the Sisters and share monastic life.
2003
Mount St. Scholastica Academy merges with the Benedictine monks’ Maur Hill Prep to become Maur Hill-Mount Academy.
Keeler Women’s Center opens at Donnelly College, Kansas City, Kansas.
2004
Sophia Spirituality Center moves from the Administration Building to the former Feeney Memorial Library.
2009
The Sisters of Benedict of Red Plains Monastery in Piedmont, Oklahoma, transfer their vows to Mount St. Scholastica.
November 2012 - November 2013
Sesquicentennial celebration of the founding of the community.
2015
Mount St. Scholastica Sisters celebrate the Year of Consecrated Life.
2019
Keeler Women’s Center moves to its current Kansas City location.
2020-2021
The Sisters went into lock-down and isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, unable to welcome guests in person, but expanding their online presence via video conferencing.
2022
The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica hosted the 100th anniversary chapter, and virtual Benedictine Colloquium, for the Federation of St. Scholastica (now the Monastic Congregation of St. Scholastica).
