To think my mother stood right here when she was 13 years old

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

CLYDE, Missouri, Jan. 25, 2018 — Anna Martina Sims Offenburger, my mother, has been dead for nearly 22 years. If she were alive, she’d be turning 111 this week.  But on a stop here this past Saturday, I almost felt like I was holding her hand — when she was 13 years old.  If that’s a little weird, I’ll still own it. 

My wife Carla Offenburger and I were traveling through northwest Missouri last weekend, and I knew our route would take us near two places I have long wanted to visit but never had.  The first, the monastery and motherhouse of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration here in tiny Clyde.  Then we went on a couple miles west to the slightly larger town of Conception and the huge monastery Conception Abbey, home to about 60 Benedictine monks and 80 young men who are studying for the priesthood in the abbey’s seminary. 

There is a family connection.

Anna Sims high school graduation in 1924 - CROPPED.jpg

Anna Sims, shown in this photo when she was a high school girl.

In 1920, my grandparents Martin and Mary Ann Sims, who were farming near Imogene in southwest Iowa and were raising five children, decided to send their oldest son John, then 15, and oldest daughter Anna, who was 13, to boarding schools here run by the Benedictines.  John went with the boys at Conception Abbey, and Anna — who eventually became my mother — was with the girls at the academy the Benedictine sisters were running at Clyde.  Those boarding schools lasted into the 1930s, then were discontinued by the Benedictines when public schools in the area became better.

Why would the parents have sent their two oldest 80 miles away to the church boarding schools?

“From what I remember, I don’t think it was a situation where our grandparents were trying to determine if John and Anna possibly had vocations (to become a priest and nun),” my older sister Sue Polk, of Omaha, tells me. “I think it was more a matter that the kids had been going to country school out there between Shenandoah and Imogene, and the parents wanted to give them at least a little exposure to Catholic education.”

Well, it certainly “took.”  Both John and Anna were lifetime faithful Catholics.  

Our first cousin Mike O’Brien, of Ogden in central Iowa, said “the way I recall the story, John was very shy as a kid, and Martin felt he would be better off if he knew his sister Anna was just up the road. I recall that even as a man, John was somewhat quiet, but a constant worker.” 

John spent just a year at the boys’ school, then finished high school back home.  Mom spent three years with the Benedictine nuns, then returned to spend her senior year at Shenandoah High School and graduate in 1924. 

Ground level view of monasery of Benedictine Sisters in Clyde MO.JPG

The front view today of the motherhouse and monastery of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri.

Several things strike me about all this.  

It had to be a financial struggle for Martin and Mary Ann.  About five years ago, cousin Mike dropped in on the Benedictines in Clyde, and mentioned that his aunt had attended the boarding school there long ago.  The sisters wrote down her name, Anna Sims, and a couple days later, Mike received a letter from Sister Marietta Crahan, then the archivist for the nuns.  She’d run a records search and confirmed that Anna Sims was a student in the 1920, ’21 and ’22 school years.  The cost?  Sister Crahan reported that financial receipts for the 1921-’22 school year showed Martin Sims had paid $145.89 for Anna’s first semester expenses and $140.66 for the second semester.  That included “room, board, tuition, music lessons and supplies, books, sewing and fancy work items, stationery and postage,” with 86 cents of that for “Misc.” 

Those dollar amounts may seem like a bargain now for a year of education, but that was big money back in the early 1920s. 

Another thing that amazes me — how’d they get there and return home? 

I doubt the Sims family even had an automobile back then.  They were farming with horses, I know that. More likely, John and Anna were riding from Shenandoah to Maryville, Missouri, or possibly on to Conception Junction, on the Wabash Railroad.  If they did that, it must’ve been a thrill for them getting on those trains.

But my biggest wonder is what 13-year-old Anna Sims, a farm girl from southwest Iowa, must have thought the first time the towering wooden doors to the Adoration Chapel inside the sisters’ monastery opened in front of her and she was directed inside it.

Interior of Adoration Chapel.JPG

The Adoration Chapel.  It took 10 years to build this Romanesque-style church, and it was consecrated in 1911. It has been in daily use ever since, with the nuns gathering five times a day for services.  It is also used for individual prayer and meditation.  It is like a quiet art museum that features marble, granite, oak, stained glass and some of the finest ceramic-tile pictorial mosaics you’ll ever see anywhere. Craftsmen came from as far as Germany to work on the chapel.

Let me give you the impression of a 70-year-old man viewing the chapel for the first time now in 2018. 

Sister Josetta Grant walked Carla and me from the lobby of the monastery around a couple corners, down a hallway and then opened those same tall wooden doors.  She showed us inside the chapel, stepped out, closed the doors and left us standing there alone.  We both gasped.  

I’ve been in magnificent churches, of all faiths, around the world. And I will say that this Adoration Chapel in Clyde, Missouri, is one of the most beautiful and inspirational churches I’ve ever seen.

I was so overwhelmed that, yes, I almost felt like I was holding my mother’s hand right then — and she was just a young girl.   I’m sure I was experiencing the same soul-stirring sensation she must’ve had on her first time in that chapel. 

Altar area in Adoration Chapel.JPG

The altar area of the chapel.  The mosaic above the altar is “Christ the Eternal High Priest” and is 25 feet high and 24 feet wide.

You can look at my photos with this column, and perhaps get a good idea how inspiring the worship space is. 

Better yet, take the online tour of the chapel that the sisters offer on their internet site, by clicking right here.  And do take time to view their photos.  The website notes that one visitor said that entering the chapel is “like stepping into the vestibule of heaven.”

Best of all, come see the monastery and chapel yourself.

You know, I don’t think my mother ever returned later in life to visit the monastery of the Benedictine Sisters. She probably always thought she was too busy, with family, her jobs and social commitments around Shenandoah.  I’m counting it as one of my worst failures as a son that, at one time or another, I didn’t just go pick her up and drive her back to Clyde. 

But maybe she indeed was standing here with Carla and me this past Saturday.

You can email the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com or comment using the handy form below here.

Monastery of Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde MO.JPG

An aerial view of the Benedictine Sisters’ home in Clyde, Missouri, before some recent construction updates.

Anna lifetime collage.jpg

A fun collage of photos portraying the life of Anna Sims Offenburger, who in the early 1920s spent three years at the boarding school the Benedictine Sisters operated. The collage was the work Chris Offenburger Werner, the youngest of Anna’s eight children.

10 thoughts on “To think my mother stood right here when she was 13 years old

  1. Thank you for sharing your visit to this beautiful place. Your personal connection there made your account of your visit even more interesting. The photos were certainly worth the time to view. Again, thank you!

    Cathy Barnett

  2. Breathtakingly beautiful, Chuck. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your family history and the virtual tour of this spectacular place. It boggles my imagination to think of the time, dedication, imagination, and artistry that created this place of worship. Thank you for posting.

    Lou Blanchfield, Churdan IA

  3. Hi, Chuck. Back in the day of Msgr. Paul Marasco (when Sally and Chuck Offenburger were growing up around St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Shenandoah), when he went on vacations he would designate a lady from St. Mary’s to go to Clyde/Conception to bring a visiting priest for masses in his absence. Or if the priest visited and was a confessor for the nuns, the need would be for someone — usually a mother — to take him to Clyde. We were lucky. My brother Mark and I rode with Mom to pick up a priest at Conception Abbey, and we were treated to a delicious noontime meal. I remember the sweet corn-on-the-cob best of all! Then we got a tour of the facilities, chapel Included, and gathered up the priest and returned to Shenandoah. For a 16-year-old, it was a marvelous experience, and thanks for bringing it back. All the best to you and Carla.

    Sally Eischeid Hopkins

  4. Thank you, Chuck. I haven’t been at Conception Abbey since summer, so I’m looking forward to going again soon. I usually go to mass and the bookstore at the abbey, but as I see from your photos and column, I need to go over to Clyde again soon.

    Rose Welchans, Farragut IA

  5. Adoration Chapel. My goodness, my goodness. Those pictures took my breath away. But your dear mom was even more beautiful. There is a nobility about Midwestern Catholics. Can’t quite explain it but it’s there.

    Douglas T. Bates III, Centerville TN

  6. Thank you, Chuck. My mother was raised just a few miles from the convent. Her mother died when she was 8. The nuns helped my grandfather, as he had a large family to raise alone. So I too feel my mother’s presence when I visit Clyde. It is a magnificent place and the nuns there are amazing. I try to support them as they sell wonderful soaps and other items. I try to go to mass or visit when I can. Thank you for telling a bit about this hidden jewel.

    Marcia Pierson

  7. Chuck, I lived in Storm Lake IA for many years and sang in the adult choir at St. Mary’s during a time when you did also. I grew up on a farm in northwest Missouri. Conception Abbey was my parish church until the “Tri-C area towns” (Clyde, Conception and Conception Junction) consolidated into one parish, St. Columba in Conception Junction. The Catholic school students (grades 1-8) sang Gregorian chant with the seminarians and monks at Christmas and Easter. It was MAGNIFICENT! The community was about 98 percent Catholic and we had a very strong youth group (CYO). We occasionally met at the convent chapel for a youth holy hour. Durning those years (early 1960s), there was quite a farm operation including a dairy. Today the sisters have a business that makes hosts for communion. I considered all of this to be “just ordinary life” until I was older and began to realize the religious, artistic and cultural treasures possessed by this community. Another interesting side story is about Abbot Gregory. He started his priestly career as an assistant pastor at nearby St. Columbine. My dad was fatally injured in an accident shortly after Father Gregory’s assignment. His own mother lived in Canada, and somehow he and my mother bonded. They kind of adopted each other. He would come out to visit her and share a piece of her amazing homemade pie. She sewed cassocks for the abbey but gave her notice since sewing on the black fabric became difficult with her failing eyesight. However, Abbot Gregory requested one final garment for himself, and of course she couldn’t say no to him! When Mother (Eileen Schieber) passed away at nearly age 96, Abbot Gregory officiated at her funeral mass. Today, Gregory Polan is stationed in Rome and is Abbot Primate of the entire Benedictine Order. He is a holy and remarkable man. Hello to you and Carla. I hope you are happy and enjoying good health in beautiful Iowa. Since we retired, we split our year between Fort Worth TX and Elizabethtown PA in order to be close to our two daughter and their families.

    Sheila Schieber Neuroth

  8. I have had the honor of visiting Clyde a number of times. My aunt, Sister Bertilla, was there a number of years. Words and pictures can’t do it justice. I too have been in churches around the world, but I don’t believe there is anyplace more inspirational as Clyde. My aunt is now deceased. I must promise myself to visit again. Thanks for the article.

    Margie Huelsmann

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