So just down the road a bit is St. Michael's Cemetery. (St. Gaspar's was St. Michael's before the diocese changed everything a few years back). In the cemetery is a section devoted to the dead sisters from the Precious blood Monastery next door to the church.
If you can't read what the stone says...here it is:
"The missionaries of the precious blood established in Italy in 1815, and the Sister's of the precious blood established in Switzerland in 1834, began their ministry in America in 1844 in Peru Ohio. In 1845, Swiss born Father Francis de Sales Brunner, a missionary of the Precious Blood, bough 80 acres of land near St. Michael's church in Thompson Township in Seneca County. This mission center cared for the spiritual needs of the immigrants in Huron, Seneca, Crawford and Richland Counties. A brick house and chapel were erected and dedicated to St. Aloysius to serve as a retreat house for priests and brothers and a seminary for students.
On December 6, 1845, twenty-eight sisters began perpetual adoration in the newly built convent dedicated to Mary of the Angels. In addition to the ministry of prayer, the sisters directed an orphanage, taught in the local school, worked in the fields and garden, and provided housing and meals in the convent/Pilgrim house for the visitors who came to the nearby Sorrowful mother shrine.
Later the Thompson Convent and Mission were referred to as Frank and then as Marywood. Due to changing needs and growth in other areas, the retreat house for priests and brothers and the seminary were closed. In 1951, the sisters also responded to the changing needs by selling their convent and surrounding property."
(More on the Peru Ohio part of it later)
Above: The convent in it's glory days
Above: the list of the sisters buried at the Cemetery. I would venture a guess they spoke German all the way to the close of the convent. ("schw." in front of all their names. Schwester is German for Sister)
Obviously the building is NOT in good condition. Since it is on private property and is surrounded by a fence, i did not venture in there. What a shame...
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8 comments:
Don't complain. If I'd said what I was thinking, or even used the common three letter abbreviation, some of the more squeamish readers would have had a hissy fit.
That's bloody incredible. Can't believe it's still standing.
The roof on the far side looks newer than the roof on the near side...maybe it's hope of some sort. I can only hope to gain access to it.
Grrrr ... that's exactly what happened to Epworth-Mary Manse, Lourdes and Transfiguration in Buffalo, First Methodist in Ft. Wayne, that's what's happening to St. Anthony's, I could go on ...
Why is there no respect for these splendid structures when they must be decomissioned from their original uses? If they can't be maintained or sold to someone who will maintain them as something useful to their communities (and a damn decent effort should be made to do just that!), then it's better to tear them down rather than let them fall into such shameful ruin ...
Well, to be honest, in this case there's no real community there to serve. The problem came from building an enormous structure out in the middle of nowhere.
They could have at least stripped it of things that were salvageable when they sold the place and just torn it down...now probably little is worth anything. There is a bell stuffed up in that little tower. Though it's in the most odd of spots, not right in the middle where you'd think...it's right up in the corner
ShariYS thanks for reading my blog,
we used to have 5 or 6 Precious Blood convents in our area, all but the old mother house at Maria Stein are gone now, I am trying to find pictures or drawings of some of them have one posted, at Egypt
Has anyone been able to get in? I just drove by it and it's completely overgrown now. Sad it was never merged with the shrine property. I found it on the county auditor. Worth about 83K according to the assessor.
The current owners are not open to letting people into the building. By the way, the Shrine will be celebrating their 150th anniversary, starting in Sept. 2024. There will be a lot of research and presentation of history during the year of Sept. 2024-25.
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