August is the month when we expect and usually get a large harvest of cucumbers, basil and tomatoes here at St. Walburg Monastery. This August we received three unexpected harvests from seeds we had sown years ago.
On August 9 in an article in the Northern Kentucky Tribune, an online publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism, Theresa Vu, owner of Theresa’s Alterations in Erlanger, told the story of her family fleeing Vietnam in 1981. Her family left on a makeshift 30-foot boat and spent three years in different camps in Thailand and the Philippines. In late 1984 the Diocese of Covington arranged for them to come to Covington. Theresa says, “We came here with $20 in our pocket and the clothes on our back. We were helped by the Benedictine Sisters at Villa Madonna.” Because Theresa was highly skilled in sewing, she got a job at an alterations shop in Covington and now owns her own business. We were pleased to see Theresa’s story and to recall the ministry Srs. Thomas Noll and Sylvester Shea (pictured above with Theresa and her daughter) undertook to help Vietnamese refugees.
On August 10 Thomas More College officially named its library the Benedictine Library to honor the Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg Monastery. The sign with the name of the library was unveiled at a ceremony on the campus and is the result of an anonymous $4 million matching gift to
In 1921 the Benedictine Sisters began Villa Madonna College in the 1907 Villa Madonna Academy building to prepare Benedictine sisters and laywomen to teach in Catholic schools. In 1928 the college became a diocesan college under the auspices of the bishop and in 1968 it was renamed Thomas More College. At the unveiling ceremony, Dr. David Armstrong, President of the College said, “We educate students of all faiths, to examine the ultimate meaning of life, their place in the world and their responsibility to others. The Benedictine Sisters have been living that mission from day one and certainly did it in the founding of Villa Madonna College/Thomas More College.”
We are proud of the flourishing educational institution Thomas More College has become and are grateful to the anonymous donor for the honor of having the library named the Benedictine Library.
On August 31 we received a letter from David Hastings, Executive Director of Housing Opportunities of Northern Kentucky (HONK) recalling the project we undertook with HONK in 2009 as part of celebrating our 150th anniversary. We partnered with HONK to raise $100,000 to build a new house not far from our original monastery in Covington’s Eastside. The house was named the House of Blessing and in the summer of 2009 a young self-employed family selected by HONK moved into it with the dream of making the house their own. HONK sponsored programs which taught them how to manage finances while living in the home they were working to buy They also learned how to care for the home and what it meant to be a homeowner. From 2009 to 2016 they experienced significant setbacks which could have discouraged them from continuing. They became homeowners this summer and HONK created a book of photographs chronicling the story of the House of Blessing.
These three stories of seeds we planted becoming “good fruit” leave us full of gratitude. We are honored to be part of these three harvests and we praise God who continues to bless the work of our hands.
Sr. Deborah Harmeling, OSB
Dear Sister, thank you for this good post. It is very good to learn about real achievements of goodness in the faith -- it gives strength, and maybe we need this every day! Jesus Christ went forward literally lifting them up from the ground. The connection with Vietnam is full of light. There are now many very good Vietnamese priests and brothers and sisters, and they have the ability to adapt very well anywhere in Asia, and also in Europe. It is a good connection for Japan, since there are similarities. A library is a house of education -- Vietnamese brothers and sisters must be fluent in English. There is a mission there, because if they are fluent, then they can join in sisterly and brotherly life, in religious communities throughout the world, and there is a good way forward. English is in fact the new Latin. Is that "Old" English? Those Anglo-Saxon saints were very good! Saint Boniface pray for us, amen (I think he was a Benedictine).
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