After more than 100 years in Buffalo, order of cloistered nuns departs for Ohio

BUFFALO, N.Y. — An order of cloistered nuns who prayed in almost total privacy behind iron gates and stone walls on the East Side is leaving for Ohio after more than a century in Buffalo. The 14 remaining members of the Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary have decided to relocate in September to the Sts. Peter and Paul Retreat Center in Newark, Ohio, within the Diocese of Columbus, the congregation announced. The nine-acre Dominican convent at 335 Doat St. is under contract for sale to the Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School, which intends to open a school at the site. "While this has been a difficult decision given our attachment to the Diocese of Buffalo and the people of Buffalo, we have become confident that the Holy Spirit is leading us to Ohio," Mother Mary Dominic, prioress of the community, said in a statement. In 2005, the Dominican nuns took a rare break from their prayers and religious studies to mark the 100th anniversary of their arrival in Buffalo. Then-Bishop Edward U. Kmiec and the Rev. Dominic Izzo, provincial of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, celebrated a special Mass for 275 people in the monastery's chapel that featured the sisters' distinctive Gregorian chanting. The order's history here traces back to May 24, 1905, when eight nuns came to the Diocese of Buffalo from a monastery in Union City, N.J., at the invitation of the Most Rev. Charles Colton, then Buffalo's bishop. The group, an offshoot of the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary in Hoboken, moved into a portion of the Doat Street estate of George Urban. The large stone complex now on the site was built in stages during the 1920s and finished in 1929. The order had 32 members from around the country and the world at the time of its centenary but has just 14 today. The sisters take prayer requests from every corner of the globe at all hours of the day from Catholics and others seeking their help. The sisters are almost entirely closed off from the outside world and conduct their daily activities largely in silence. Few outsiders were allowed inside what is known as the papal enclosure – a priest to hear confession, doctors and nurses and a handful of others. The nuns rarely, if ever, left the facility and if they did so without approval they couldn't return. The Dominican nuns are one of two long-standing congregations of cloistered sisters in Buffalo, along with the Carmelite Sisters of Buffalo in North Buffalo. The Dominican nuns for several years have considered relocating from Buffalo, said Mother Mary Dominic. "The community began to feel called by the Holy Spirit to move to a place in the United States lacking a contemplative monastery of nuns," she said in the statement. "We desired to follow Pope Francis's reminder of the importance of the cloistered life as a work of evangelization among the people of God." The nuns in mid-June moved into temporary accommodations with the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance & Christian Charity in Stella Niagara. They also expect their stay in the retreat convent in Newark, Ohio, to be temporary as they hope to build a monastery of their own there. The sisters had wanted to arrange a Mass of Thanksgiving and a reception for their friends and benefactors before they left here, but Mother Mary Dominic said said this wasn't possible because of the Covid-19 pandemic. "We wish these devoted and holy women of St. Dominic only good things in their new home, and with the assurance that they will remain in our prayers as we ask them to remember the good people of Buffalo always in their own prayers," Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Buffalo, said in the statement. ——— ©2020 The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.) Visit The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.) at www.buffalonews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.