“Pentecost eve is here and we are full of earnest desire to participate in the fruits of a mystery so consoling” - Mother Mary Maddalena Bentivoglio, Custom Book Directory On June 7, 1967, Cardinal Joseph Ritter died. He was the Archbishop who brought the Sisters from the Poor Clare monastery in Evansville to found our monastery in St. Louis. He was a devoted father and friend to our founding Sisters. He said, when dedicating the monastery: Yes, dearly beloved, besides this personal contact I have to present, there is another aspect: -- that this foundation is a branch of the Poor Clares brought into this country through the instrumentality of the Venerable Mother Maddalena Bentivoglio and one of her blood sisters, who were sent to the United States by Pope Pius IX to establish a Poor Clare Monastery in our midst. If you would read the history of that heroic woman and her sister - how they traversed this land in vain, unjust accusations brought against them everywhere. These heroic women persevered until they came to Omaha, Nebraska. There, I am happy to say in behalf of our good lay people, a Mr. Creighton, whom you will associate with Creighton University, welcomed these women and made it possible for them to establish a Monastery. So, our Community is a part of Mother Mary Maddalena Bentivoglio, whose cause is before the Sacred Congregation of Rites for beatification. Her body rests, not in Omaha, but in Evansville, where she died. (see May 25th)