The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

Missionary fervor in Europe throughout the 18th and 19th centuries led to many new convents worldwide. This and the growing need for Catholic institutions in the rural Midwest, led five sisters from the Maria Reichenbach convent in Switzerland to establish a new convent in Missouri. They established their convent in Clyde, Missouri around 1876 and selflessly devoted themselves to prayer and serving their community. They supported the community by running a school, orphanage, farm, industrial school, altar bread department, and much more. They are still a pillar of their community to this day and continue having services and prayer.

Five sisters set out from their home in Switzerland to the United States in 1874 to fulfill the request of the Benedictine fathers at a monastery in Conception, Missouri, which is located only two miles from Clyde. These fathers originated from a monastery in Engelberg, Switzerland, making them geographically close to Maria Reichenbach. This connection is why the fathers asked sisters from this convent to establish themselves near Conception because the community needed help ministering to the immigrant population. This seems like a small reason to make such a big move, but it led the sisters to go on to do a lot of very impactful work in the Northwest Missouri area.

Initially, the sisters lived with and worked for members of the monastery in Conception Junction and a priest in Maryville for several years when they first came to America. Since they could not monetarily pay for their food and lodging, they did all of the housekeeping, cooking, and other miscellaneous chores in the house to repay their debt. This lasted until sometime during the spring of 1876 when the sisters had been running a school for quite a few months and had somewhere else to stay. Eventually, they built their own convent in Clyde. By 1882, they were able to move into their new home. This allowed them to have a permanent base of operations, and they expanded their work in the community.

Their first major action in the area was making a school for local immigrants that gave them a basic education and taught them religious values. Upon opening, the school had thirty-nine students aged five to eighteen. During this time period this was a very large number of students, especially for a new school. As the school became more well known, so too did the sisters and their mission. They gained many new postulants during this time which allowed them to do educational and missionary work in other nearby areas. Several sisters moved short distances away to teach in districts such as Maryville and St. Mary’s.

By 1920, the convent had grown to consist of several buildings and structures in addition to their main building which housed their private rooms and the main chapel. This expansion was necessary to house all of the working parts of the convent. They had an infirmary, horse barn, dairy barn, warehouse, well, blacksmith, carpentry, and tower. Construction was nearly continuous in order to keep up with the ever increasing number of projects the sisters wished to pursue. Their success and close connections in the surrounding communities is what allowed them to easily gain the funding, materials, and manpower for all of these buildings.

Ultimately, the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri have a very complex past which shaped their founding and how their mission has evolved over time. The community in Nodaway County they first arrived in greatly shaped how much they were able to serve those around them.

Eustice, Ronald. Clyde Hill Farm and the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (Ronald Eustice Publishing, 2021), 27.

Ford, Elyssa. “Fine Herds of Cattle: Rural Nuns and Farmwork at a Missouri Convent.” Missouri Historical Review 116, no. 4 (July 2022): 275–87. 

Renggli, M. Beatrice, “From Reichenbach to Maryville: An Account of the Journey” (1874).