by Dennis Dalman
Sister Karen Rose was installed on the morning of June 4 as the new prioress of the St. Benedict Monastery during a Rite of Installation in the monastery’s Sacred Heart Chapel.
Prioress Karen Rose has now become the 18th prioress in the history of the monastery. In a Feb. 26, 2023 canonical election by her peers, S. Karen Rose was chosen to become the new prioress.
At the installation rite, only Benedictine sisters and special guests attended.
Presiding at the installation ceremony was Sister Nicole Kunze, who is vice president of the Monastic Congregation of St. Benedict.
After the installation, at 1:30 p.m., a Celebratory Eucharist ceremony took place at which St. Cloud Diocese Bishop Patrick Neary presided. That event was open to the public and was livestreamed.
Then, from 3-5 p.m., a public reception was held at the Gathering Place where guests enjoyed snacks, viewed a photo slide show of Sister Karen’s life and congratulated the new prioress.
More than 400 people attended the Eucharist ceremony. There were guests from as far away as England (Sister Karen’s birth country) and Germany. The guests included oblates, volunteers, employees, donors, friends and sisters from other Benedictine monasteries, staff members from the Diocese of St. Cloud and the president of the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University Brian Bruess and his wife, Carol.
The woman who became Sister Karen Rose was born and raised in northwest England, the only child of Leslie and Joan (Ashton) Rose. While growing up, she developed a passionate attachment to the arts and the humanities and considered pursuing a career in ancient and modern languages, but later she decided instead to study philosophy and theology, hoping to discover the mysterious meaning of life. That “calling” led her eventually to move into the field of health care so she could help ease the suffering of human beings.
Sister Karen has a wide-ranging knowledge in a variety of topics. She earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in philosophy and theology from England’s Oxford University. She also has a master’s degree in medical social anthropology from Keele University in Staffordshire, England; a doctorate degree in nursing from Victoria University of Manchester, England; a registered nursing qualification from South Cheshire School of Nursing in Crewe, England; and a post-graduate certificate in education, also from Victoria University.
In 2005, she left England to visit the St. Benedict Monastery and was immediately impressed with its spiritual mission. After trips back to England and lots of soul-searching during which she deeply missed being at the monastery, she was accepted as a member years later, in May of 2012. Sister Karen served as the director of mission advancement at the monastery until her official installation as prioress June 4. As the new prioress, she succeeds Sister Susan Rudolph, who served as prioress since 2017.
A monastery prioress is elected every six years as the spiritual leader of the Benedictine community, currently comprised of 157 ordained sisters. In addition, a prioress also serves as chief executive officer of the corporation and represents the monastery on the corporate board of the College of St. Benedict, as well as on the corporate board of St. Cloud Hospital. Those two institutions were founded many decades ago by the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict.
That Order is a monastic community of women who seek God in their daily lives according to the Gospel and the Rule of Benedict. Through their ministry of prayer, work and community living, they listen and respond to the needs of the church and the world.
The Leap
During much of the past two decades, S. Karen struggled between her duties in her native country, England, and the deep and persistent attraction to St. Benedict’s Monastery and its spiritual traditions.
Later, she had a chance to spend two weeks doing more studying and writing at the Benedictine monastery and campus in St. Joseph. There she contemplated deeply while discovering a new clarity that convinced her she wanted to change her way of life, to simplify her way of living and to find a new path.
Back in England, she visited a monk at Douai Abbey and told him about her new, clarified vision – that she needed more time for God and prayer and that she was thinking about leaving her job.
“I told him,” she said, “(that) I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff and leaping into the dark. I was worried whether God would catch me if I made the leap.”
The monk said to her: “I think God will catch you, but if God doesn’t, there’s always the floor.”
She resigned her job in England and several months later returned to St. Joseph, to the monastery. She stayed for three months, reasoning with herself about why “she couldn’t and shouldn’t possibly consider a religious vocation.”
She returned to Manchester, England and found several jobs, allowing her to support herself while pondering the direction of her future. All the while, she kept feeling the monastery in faraway Minnesota beckoning, beckoning.
The return
In 2006, she returned to St. Joseph, back once again to the monastery. In her early years there she worked in housekeeping, the liturgy office and the bakery. She also worked in St. Scholastica Convent filing health records and helping the administrator and human-resources director with clerical tasks.
She told herself this: “I knew if I heard a “No’ from within myself, it would be quite simple and I would leave (go back to England). I got here (monastery), and within three to four days I didn’t ever want to leave.”
She did, however, go back to England – for Christmas – at which time she shared her long-term decision with friends and family. That August, in 2006, she returned to the monastery for good.
Sister Karen’s final acceptance into the monastery was approved with a final vote on May 8, 2012, with a Feast of St. Benedict Eucharist on July 11 in the Scared Heart Chapel.
At that time, she was working in the monastery’s Development and Communications Office. Later she was named director of missions advancement. And now, she is officially the new prioress.
God had indeed “caught her.”
Sisters and special guests enter the Sacred Heart Chapel June 4 to participate in the Rite of Installation for new Prioress Sister Karen Rose.
Bishop Patrick Neary of the Diocese of St. Cloud presided at the Celebratory Eucharist ceremony for the new prioress of the St. Benedict Monastery, Sister Karen Rose (right).
The leadership team members for the Monastery of St. Benedict are (front row, left to right) Sister Karen Rose, the new prioress, and Sister Sharon Nohner, the subprioress; (back row) Sister Jeanne Marie Lust, treasurer, and Sister Colleen Quinlivan, community secretary.
