HM Sisters and the Land

Sister Beatrix Champougny and Sister Lidwina

By Mary Cay Doherty, School Archivist and Social Studies Faculty Member

Magnificat’s heritage as a Sisters of the Humility of Mary sponsored school includes a deep and sacred connection to the Earth as a gift from God that sustains humanity. Like the HM Sisters, Magnificat is committed to conserving, preserving, and protecting the Earth and its abundant, life-giving resources.

Through the Seeds of Service Horticulture Club, Magnificat students can learn about, and engage with, the environment. They tend to our beehives, cultivate plants in the Hoop House, grow vegetables for Meals on Wheels, and create floral arrangements for campus events. These students follow in the footsteps of HM Sisters who have ministered at the Villa Maria Farm, including Sister Beatrix Champougny and Sister Lidwina Kirschensteiner.

When the first HM Sisters and Father John Joseph Bégel arrived in the Cleveland Diocese in 1864, Bishop Louis Amadeus Rappe offered them a house and acreage in Pennsylvania.

When the first HM Sisters and Father John Joseph Bégel arrived in the Cleveland Diocese in 1864, Bishop Louis Amadeus Rappe offered them a house and acreage in Pennsylvania. While other communities had abandoned the property due to difficulties cultivating the land, which

was overgrown, rocky, and even marsh-like in some places, Father Bégel developed a 10-year plan for their new home in New Bedford, Pennsylvania, that included clearing stones and using them for drainage; planting fruit trees, vegetables, and medicinal plants; and starting a large nursery. The sisters, however, had little farming experience and few financial resources, and they spoke no English.

Twenty-four-year-old Sister Beatrix Champougny led the way as the sisters worked to turn the land into a productive farm. While she preferred manual labor to activities like needlework, Sister Beatrix had no farming

Villa drawing by Sister Odile Philbert

knowledge or experience. So, she read books about farming and, true to the HM founding charism of humility, she sought advice and assistance from a local farmer. Despite her best efforts, however, the first potato crop failed. She was undeterred, and in time, the land yielded bountiful crops to sustain the sisters.

Sister Beatrix also expanded the farm to include livestock. Sheep provided wool for the sisters’ habits. Cows provided milk and beef to feed the community, and their hides provided leather that could be made into shoes. Always resourceful, Sister Beatrix taught herself how to make shoes by taking old shoes apart and studying their construction.

Decades later when Sister Lidwina Kirschensteiner entered the congregation in 1915, the elderly Sister Beatrix was no longer farming, but Sister Lidwina surely heard about Sister Beatrix’s contributions to the farm. She could not have imagined, however, that 10 years after Sister Beatrix’s death in 1921, she herself would be working the farm.

When Sister Lidwina learned about her new assignment, she cried. As a teacher, she knew nothing about farming—but like Sister Beatrix and so many sisters before her, Sister Lidwina responded to the needs of the time and embraced the challenge. She took correspondence courses—the early 20th century version of distance learning—and studied the farming materials that were mailed to her. She quickly gained new skills such as learning to expertly cut the farm’s butchered meats.

Sister Lidwina also understood that assistance from lay people was integral to the farm’s success. At the end of the harvest, she organized dinners for those who worked

on the farm. Years later, this tradition was revived and reinvented as a Harvest Days celebration that was open to the public.

Like Sisters Beatrix and Lidwina, countless HM sisters ministered on Villa Maria’s farm with gratitude to God the Creator for the earth and its resources. Working on the land deepened their faith.

Often, this ministry required them to learn new skills. Today, Seeds of Service students have similar experiences in their horticultural work at Magnificat. As they advance their knowledge and cultivate respect for the Earth, they embrace the call to be lifelong learners on a faith-filled journey.

Sister Beatrix

Villa Maria Mother House circa 1873