Community of St. Mary

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The Community of St. Mary (CSM) is an Anglican religious order of nuns with three independent houses located in Greenwich, New York, Sewanee, Tennessee, and Mukwonago, Wisconsin. The oldest indigenous Anglican order in the United States, it was founded in New York City in 1865 by a group of five sisters, and formally constituted by Bishop Horatio Potter of New York as the Sisters of St. Mary. The Episcopal Church was initially slow to recognize the order, and they only found wide support after four of the sisters died nursing victims of a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee in 1878. These four sisters are now commemorated by the Episcopal Church on September 9th as the Martyrs of Memphis or as Constance and her Companions. The community is now three independent provinces: Eastern, Western, and Southern.

The Eastern Province sisters have recently moved from Peekskill, New York to Greenwich, New York, where they share a 620-acre (2.5 km²) facility with the Spiritual Life Center of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany. Their rule of life is very similar to the Benedictine rule, and they lived a mixed life of prayer and service. The sisters pray five offices each day, and their Monastic Diurnal Revised is a popular prayer book for many outside of the community as well. The sisters engage in various activities, including work at the healing center of the Spiritual Life Center, giving retreats, and serving on the board of Saint Mary's Hospital for Children. They have also been very involved with supporting the establishment of a new convent in Malawi.

A branch house of the Eastern Province of the Order was established in Malawi in 2002. The initial group of Malawians completed their novitiate at the American house, but now that they have enough professed sisters of their own, they will be able to train novices in Malawi. They are hoping to establish a crisis nursery for babies whose parents are unable to care for them because of AIDS. They also give presentations in churches, visit the sick, lead Bible studies, and work on a farm, helping other women to learn sustainable agriculture techniques.

The Southern Province sisters trace their descent from the remnants of the Memphis sisters. Their current chapel houses the altar, aumbry, and chalice that were originally located in the Memphis house. The sisters formerly operated a girls' school in Sewanee--St. Mary's Preparatory School for Girls--which closed at the end of the 1967-1968 school year. The school is now a retreat center that is available for individual and group retreats, in addition to hosting presentations on contemplative prayer. The convent and the retreat center are located only minutes from the campus of the Sewanee: The University of the South. The sisters say the office from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, in addition to a daily Mass, every day except Wednesday, which is the sisters' silent retreat day.

The sisters also have a mission in the Philippines, which has been in existence for over thirty years.

The Western Province sisters pursue individual ministries, but are especially involved in offering retreats and spiritual direction at Mary's Margin in Mukwonago, Wisconsin.

[edit] References

Ten Decades of Praise: The Story of the Community of Saint Mary During its First Century (1865-1965) by Sister Mary Hilary, CSM. Dekoven Foundation: 1965.
The Hidden Life PBS documentary on the Community of Saint Mary (copies available from the convent)
Anglican Religious Communities Yearbook: 2004-2005. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2003.