The Abbey of Our Lady of the Mississippi is located near

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...

. The nuns there are members of the branch of the

Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

, commonly referred to as Trappistines. They are a part of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the

Archdiocese of Dubuque The Archdiocese of Dubuque ( la, Archidiœcesis Dubuquensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the northeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States. It includes all the Iowa counti ...

History

In 1960, the Trappistine nuns of Mount Saint Mary's Abbey in

Wrentham, Massachusetts Wrentham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,178 at the 2020 census. History In 1660, five men from Dedham were sent to explore the lakes near George Indian's wigwam and to report back to the ...

had decided that they had exceeded the capacity of their monastery, due to the great number of

religious vocation A calling, in the religious sense of the word, is a religious vocation (which comes from the Latin for "call") that may be professional or voluntary and, idiosyncratic to different religions, may come from another person, from a divine messenger, ...

s of that era. They therefore decided it was time to make a new foundation. The original site was to be in Argentina, where there was already a new monastery founded by the monks of the Trappist abbey near to Wrentham. That site did not work out, however, so the abbess, Mother Angela, O.C.S.O., asked the Trappists abbots of the United States for possible sites. The abbot of

New Melleray Abbey New Melleray Abbey is a Trappist monastery located near Dubuque, Iowa. The abbey is located about 15 miles southwest of Dubuque and is in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Currently the Abbey is home to about 16 monks. Several of the monks work in the ...

offered to assume responsibility for such a foundation. After a period of searching for a suitable location, and the generous donation of a benefactor, in July 1964 the "Hickory Hill" estate, south of Dubuque, became available and was recommended as a suitable site. The abbey was founded in 1964 when the first thirteen nuns left in to settle on the present site of the abbey, under the leadership of Mother Columba Guare, O.C.S.O. The nuns began making candy soon after, as a source of income, but they also attempted to support the monastery through farming, growing Christmas trees, and raising livestock. The monastery was declared an autonomous community and raised to the status of

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

on 3 May 1968. Two years later, on 7 May, Mother Columba was elected as the first

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...

of the community. She continued to lead the community until 1982. She was succeeded by Mother Gail Fitzpatrick, who served as abbess until 2006 when

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

Nettie Louise Gamble, O.C.S.O. was elected.International website of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observanc

/ref> Mother Rebecca Stramoski was elected abbess in 2012 and was re-elected in 2018 for a second six year term.

Today

Currently the abbey is home to about 20 nuns, who, as required by the

Rule of St Benedict The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's R ...

, spend their days in a balance between choral and private prayer, ''

lectio divina In Western Christianity, ''Lectio Divina'' (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word. In the v ...

'' (meditative reading of Scripture and other spiritual books) and manual labor. The Abbey supports itself primarily with candy making, but also farms the land it owns on the bluffs of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. Visitors are welcome to make a retreat and stay in any of several guesthouses on the property but these are often booked months in advance. The nuns have a daily routine that involves spending a large part of their day in prayer, work, and contemplation. Each day begins with the Office of

Vigil A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' (Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become genera ...

at 3:45 a.m..

Compline Compline ( ), also known as Complin, Night Prayer, or the Prayers at the End of the Day, is the final prayer service (or office) of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours, which are prayed at fixed prayer times. The English wo ...

, the last prayer of the

Liturgy of the Hours The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: ''Liturgia Horarum'') or Divine Office (Latin: ''Officium Divinum'') or ''Opus Dei'' ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the ...

, is at 7:15 p.m. The Abbey is well known for candy, Trappistine Creamy Caramels. From September through December the Sisters make over a ton of caramels each week and ship them worldwide. The nuns operate an onsite gift shop stocked with candy from their factory as well as various religious gifts.

Expansion

In 1999, the nuns of the abbey decided to begin a daughter foundation,

Tautra Abbey Tautra Abbey ( no, Tautra Mariakloster) was a monastery of Cistercians, Cistercian monks founded in the 13th century on the island of Tautra in the Trondheimsfjord in Norway. The island is part of the municipality of Frosta in Trøndelag county ...

, in

Tautra Tautra is an island in the municipality of Frosta in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the Trondheimsfjord, just north of the city of Trondheim. The island is connected to the rest of Frosta by a long causeway bridge. The island is ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, and five nuns of Mississippi Abbey and two

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

nuns from other monasteries arrived there. In March 2006, Tautra Mariakloster became an autonomous

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...

References

External links

Our Lady of the Mississippi WebsiteTrappistine Creamy Caramels

Gallery

File:Our Lady of Mississippi Abbey P1010021.JPG, A young guest helps out in the abbey garden File:Candy made at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey P1010047.JPG, Candy made by the nuns at the abbey File:Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey.jpg, Resting area on the abbey lawn File:Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey farm and candy houseP1010065.JPG, The nuns generate their own income from their candy making, a farm and retreat house. File:Candy warehouse at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey P1010051.JPG, The candy warehouse at the abbey File:Guest at Our Lady of Mississippi Abbey N1206456639 56640 2352.jpg, A guest helps out in the candy warehouse at the abbey. File:Livestock at Our Lady of Mississippi Abbey P1010054.JPG, The abbey operates a farm, this is a picture of some of the livestock. File:Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey Dubuque 020.jpg, Side view of the altar and one of the nuns at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Mississippi. {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Dubuque, Iowa Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque Trappistine monasteries in the United States Religion in Dubuque, Iowa 20th-century Christian monasteries History of women in Iowa