The Best-Kept Secret in the Pacific Northwest!

St. Placid Priory is a women's Benedictine monastic community. We come from diverse backgrounds and have pursued many different careers. We are down-to-earth. We follow the Rule of St. Benedict, pray together and extend our Benedictine presence to the local community in the Olympia, Washington area.

We are healthy risk-takers, willing to follow the call of the Holy Spirit--even when the invitation seems unsure. We are a community with some structure and much freedom. We strive to allow the Rule of Benedict and the prophetic call to influence our lives. We are optimistic about our future and are taking concrete steps to prepare for our monastic future in the next century. We seek to cultivate a gentle spirit, bringing a non-violent stance to our conversation, interactions and ministry.

We strive for contemplative wholeness. Discernment around the use of our time--as individual members and as a community--focuses on maintaining prayerful balance. The community currently takes one mid-week day monthly for silence. This allows us to deepen our God-awareness and attentiveness to the Spirit's movement. Ministry, holy leisure and meals surround and support our life of prayer.

We gather as a community for Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours (Morning, Noon and Evening Praise) in our Chapel. See Liturgy Schedule. We use an Office we have developed with inclusive language and expanded God imagery. Our readings for Evening Office come from the writings of women and those voices our culture rarely hear from. As we give special care to our observance of the Liturgical Season, we seek the proclamation of the prophetic WORD in all aspects of our life together.

Our communal prayer is fed by our personal commitment to lectio, an ancient monastic way of prayer. This form of prayer shapes our interior life, deepening our self-awareness and attentiveness to our monastic observance. Lectio interfaces with our entire way of prayer in the monastery.

While fully aware that we are self-supporting, our ministry grows out of our values. We offer spiritual direction and spiritually formative programs. We seek to exemplify non-violence and to promote justice. We affirm the dignity of all people, and work to restore silenced voices to our culture.

We are connected globally. We work with Benedictine women in Africa and the Philippines. Currently we are blessed with the presence of three African Sisters from the Benedictine Sisters of St. Agnes in Chipole, Tanzania. Two of them are attending college at St. Martin's College, and one is a member of our household staff learning English and studying spirituality.

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Our Mission Statement

As a monastic community, we the Benedictine Sisters of St. Placid Priory cultivate a contemplative spirit that leads to hospitality and works of justice. We witness Gospel values in building community. We are committed to nurturing spiritual growth in ourselves and others, collaborative leadership, stewardship of the environment, and taking risks in following God's call.

"Hospitality means more than serving a meal, opening a door, or offering a bed. It means opening our hearts to others." --Dorothy Day

As Benedictine women, we live in community focused on the gospel mandate to become as Christ. We continuously discern the call of the Holy Spirit; our search is intentional and collaborative. Every four years, in preparation for discernment and election of a prioress, we set goals that form our vision of the ways God is leading us into the future.

Direction Statements

2010 - 2014

1. The power in our deep roots impels us to contemplative living with each other.

+ We will explore new ways to pray, to dialog, to bless each other and to resolve conflicts.

2. We hear the call to simplify how we live.

+ We will develop simpler new ways of doing.  We will analyze and discern what we will release or modify and what we will bless, in regard to ministry commitment, monastery operations and use of our sacred spaces.

3.  We are already enlivened by our extended Community.

+ We will consider and implement creative ways to make our community more visible and to invite woment into new forms of membership.

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St. Placid Priory is a significant part of a vibrant living tradition, a river whose source goes back to the early Christian Movement. Women have been living in intentional communities--called monasteries--with lives focused on prayer, spiritual growth and service to the poor through many centuries. We will be faithful to the monastic way into the future.

480: Benedict and his twin sister, Scholastica, were born near Rome. Benedict wrote a Rule--that is, a guide for the spiritual journey--that would become the norm for monasticism in the Western world.

1035: St. Walburga's Benedictine Monastery is refounded in Eichstätt, Bavaria.

1852: Sister Benedicta Riepp of Eichstätt comes to America and establishes several communities, including St. Benedict's in St. Joseph, Minnesota.

1892: Benedictine Sisters from St. Benedict's arrive in Tacoma to work in the schools.

1952: St. Placid Priory is established as an independent monastery. Our first priory was at Mud Bay, Olympia with 35 Sisters.

1961: The new St. Placid Priory and St. Placid High School was built (in what is now Lacey).

1985: St. Placid High School was closed. Priory Wood Daycare, The Priory Spirituality Center and Conference Center were opened.

1992: Responding to the call to a more monastic lifestyle, the new Priory was built on adjoining land. The Priory Spirituality Center re-opened with a capacity to house retreatants. Listening With the Spirit, our spiritual direction formation program began. The Conference Center was also re-opened.

Currently: Continuing to respond to God's call, we now operate The Priory Store, offer Healing Touch and have begun a new spiritual formation program called Tending the Fire. We are also engaged in helping to educate African Benedictine Sisters.

That In All Things, God May Be Glorified!

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