Brief History

Every beginning is hard." Such was the wisdom of our foundress, Mother Mary Anselma Felber. In 1874 she and our pioneer sisters made the arduous journey from Maria Rickenbach in the Swiss Alps to the rolling hills of Northwest Missouri. The Benedictine monks of Engelberg, Switzerland were recently established in Conception, Missouri and needed help ministering to the German immigrant population. Seized with missionary fervor of the time, the community of Maria Rickenbach sacrificed five young sisters to serve the Church in a new land. Mother Mary Anselma's deepest desire was to establish in America a convent of Perpetual Adoration in the context of monastic life.

Frontier life was difficult and demanding. The sisters began teaching the immigrant children and before long they opened an academy and ran an orphanage. Gradually they built up a farm which provided their meat, milk, and eggs; and at its peak, Clyde Hill Farms boasted of a prize-winning dairy herd as well. Over time the sisters’ work also included the making of liturgical vestments, producing altar breads, operating a printery, and establishing a correspondence department.

Through these works our sisters served the spiritual and practical needs of God’s people. After the 1st World War our community raised funds to assist devastated monasteries and convents in Europe. As tokens of gratitude religious houses sent relics of the saints and other precious items that had survived the war. Our collection of these 550 documented relics, which is unduplicated in the US, as well as artifacts of our own history, are displayed in our Heritage Room/Relic Chapel.

Today we continue to support ourselves through altar bread work, soap making and correspondence. We persevere in cultivating the earth with landscapes and vegetable and flower gardens. And we carry on the labor of love through the monastic life - our service to one another and the Church.

Our Founder

Mother Mary Anselma Felber was born on January 21, 1843, at Kottwil, Canton-Luzern in Switzerland and was baptized Elizabeth Felber. Her parents were righteous and God-fearing and taught her to love God above all. 

The grace of God led Elizabeth to give her life to the service of the Lord and of his holy Church. Therefore at only 16 years old, she entered the Convent of Perpetual Adoration at Maria Rickenbach. She was given the name Sister Mary Anselma. In this quickly flourishing house she would, after a year of probation, pronounce her vows on May 30, 1860. She so well adapted to the spirit of her new religious family that the confidence of the superiors and the love of her fellow-sisters soon made her assistant of the Reverend Mother. In this position she worked for the welfare and blessing of the convent until God’s providence wanted her in holy obedience to go to far-away America. 

In August 1874 five sisters journeyed from Maria Rickenbach, Switzerland, to the United States, in response to requests of the Benedictine Fathers at Conception, Missouri for assistance in ministering to the immigrant population. Thirty-year-old Mother Anselma Felber was chosen as their superior. She died nine years later, having seen only the small beginnings of the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Heart Wisdom - A compilation of words of wisdom gleaned from the letters of Mother Anselma 

• “Where there is peace, there is God and with Him, we have all.”
• “Our Lord will help; it is His work.  He has begun – He will also complete it.  All is His.”
• “God’s providence allowed these trials: may He be blessed for them!”
• “I trust firmly that our Lord will do all.”
• “Every beginning is hard.”

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