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Home My Public Portal AboutMesa, Idaho: Marymount HermitageSol ar it Ayt Named for one of the original hermits, St. Anthony the Great, Tony earns his keep chasing mice. "He's more of a hermit than I am," laughs Sister Rebecca. lister s On a solitary ridge with a stunning view, the new chapel at Marymount Hermitage will be dedicated April 29. Hidden on a lonely ridge near Mesa, two hermit nuns brave harsh Idaho elements to pray for the outside world By Tim Woodward The Idaho Statesman MESA — The buildings of Marymount Hermitage cling to a windswept ridge north of the ghost town of Mesa. A rocky access road ends at a modern chapel, its lights burning brightly in the blackness. Inside, a solitary woman in homemade denim clothes kneels before a wooden altar. It could be a scene from another age, the woman fingering her ro- sary, a candle flickering beside an icon, the night pouring in through the windows. It is utter- ly silent. ;fir` At 5:30 a.m., she prepares the altar for morning Mass. More prayers follow. At 7 a.m., the chapel bell rings and another woman in denim en- ters and crosses herself. They ''Everything can be a prayer,'' See Hermits /6D says Sister Beverly. ''We pray about six hours a day," says Sister Beverly of Marymount Hermitage. "But our goal is to pray always.'' Sister Beverly prays the rosary as she joins Sister Rebecca in the chapel for vespers. /29, #, 3 � f -i "a? 1, s pray silently, as they have here every Simple outings are a source of joy. day for a decade. Sister Rebecca Mary "I know what would be fun," Sister Bonnell and Sister Mary Beverly Beverly bubbles. "Let's go to the Greger are a unique combination , , post the founders and sole members of the offWith this she loads a visitor into their Hermit Sisters of Mary, a religious Dodge truck and it's off to Mesa. Then, order of two. s having had so much fun the first time, When it was dedicated in 1984, the ��.�e hermitage was three modular dwellings, repeats the process. a common house and combination cha- Sister Rebecca, 62, grew up in Bremer - pel- library. Since then, two retreat houses, a bell tower, workshop, green- ton, Wash. She attended Baptist and Methodist churches, enjoyed shooting house and larger library have been add- guns enough to join a rifle club, worked ed. On April 29, a new chapel will be consecrated. as a sales secretary for Boeing and 20th Century Fox. She was 23 when she be- The years also have brought disap- came a Catholic, 31 when she entered a pointment. convent. We would like to see more sisters," Sister Beverly, 46, was the oldest of Sister Beverly says. If we had five or seven children in a Catholic family in six, we could make a new foundation in Illinois. She never wanted to be any - thing but a nun. another state." Prospective members have stayed up „ Nobody ever told me the Lord could to a year and a half. None have stayed to speak to you, but when I made my first take permanent vows. "It's a harsh life," says Father Eugene communion I very clearly heard the Lord say, Will you be miner I said `Yes,' Esch, a Benedictine monk and the sis with all my heart. ters' chaplain. "We can get three to four They met at the Sisters of St. Mary's -n feet of snow here. The trails blow closed and ,you're walking in snow up to your Oregon. Both were teaching nuns children ocalled knees. The sisters come to midnight vig- felt to liife of solitude. No hermit ils in howling winds and snow and rain. orders matched the calling, so they start - There's no air conditioning in their houses, and it gets up to 100 degrees in ed their own. Idaho had no hermit nuns, so Bishop Sylvester Treinen encouraged the summer." them to come to Idaho. The howling winds picked up Sister It was a sacrifice to leave the world of Beverly's woodshed and slammed it people for the solitude of Marymount. You don't become a hermit because against her house, breaking her win- dows. For months the sisters had no road, electricity or running water. There you don't like people," Sister Rebecca says. "You become a hermit because you is no television, no secular magazines or love people. You want to help them newspapers, no telephone. The harsh life through a contemplative life and minis - includes 4 a.m. wakeups, sustained si- try of prayer." lence, bread - and -water fasts. But they are not harsh people. Relax- A gregarious hermit, Sister Beverly adds that "the sacrifice of teaching and ing their hours of silence for interviews, living in a community to come here was they talk non -stop. "I had to laugh recalling our conversa- like dying. Dying won't be difficult now. But I know it's right for me. A life of tion last night," Sister Rebecca says, her blue eyes twinkling. "If had been prayer is a benefit to everyone. "... people watching and I hadn't been dressed like If we pray and work and study well for God, it's a contribution to the world. I a nun, they'd have thought you were the hermit." took the first murder in this county as a She delights in showing guests the personal affront. Our lives here should make this a more peaceful place." new chapel. "This is where we keep the wine," she The sisters have cottage industries. Sister Rebecca makes wildflower greet - says, laughing. "Would you like a drink ?" ing cards; Sister Beverly writes and does typing and transcribing. But their primary work is prayer. They pray a minimum of six hours a day. "Opr focus is prayer no matter what we're doing," says Sister Rebecca. "To me, picking a wildflower is a prayer." She couldn't be in a better place for picking wildflowers. Marymount is 100 acres of hills and draws donated by a local rancher. Dry in summer and raw in winter, it is a verdant bowl ringed by snowy peaks in the spring. Eighty variet- ies of wildflowers flourish in its red soil. "God plants the garden, and I har- vest it," Sister Rebecca says. "I talk to Him while I'm working. It's teamwork. I'm always aware of His presence. Oh, look! Spring beauties!" Stooping to pick a pink blossom from a green hillside, she could be a tryout for "The Sound of Music." The sisters pay their expenses with donations, charges for their work and fees from solitary retreats. "It's exactly what I needed," said Joan Tierney, a retreatant from Day- ton, Wash. "There is such an emptying and outpouring of peace here. It's a- way of getting in touch with yourself." The retreats, open to women or men of all faiths, can be from two to 30 days and cost $30 a day. (Reservations: 2150 Hermitage Lane; Mesa, ID 83643.) The nuns' own needs are small. Food or money they don't need is given to the poor. Occasionally the hermits break their solitude. Sister Beverly goes to New Mexico twice a year to teach in a poor parish. Sister Rebecca went to Bosnia in 1993, delivering clothing and medi- cine to 23 refugee camps. In an apparent contradiction to their lifestyle, they are attracting neighbors. People who want to be near them are buying land to build houses around the hermitage. "Everyone who comes into contact with the sisters, it changes their lives," says Sherry Moore, who attends Mass at the chapel. "They make you more devout." A hermit - inspired subdivision isn't likely. "The minimum lot size is 60 acres," says Sister Beverly. "We're not wor- ried about over - crowding." The nuns of Marymount aren't Ida- ho's only religious hermits. Two hermit monks live near the Montana border. Nationwide, Sister Rebecca says, the number of hermits is increasing. "Hermits flourish in times of confu- Katherine Jones/The Idaho Statetm'an Sister Rebecca, 62, was 31 when she, entered a convent. Sion and upheaval. That's when a life of prayer becomes a response to. the confusion that exists elsewhere." These, Sister Beverly adds, are "trou- bled times at every level. Couples have to fight to stay married. Children used to be welcomed as blessings; now many are killed before they're born. At the other end of life is euthanasia. " .. Some families can't afford food while others are caught up in the struggle for all the things the world says they need to be happy. We don't have those things, and we're happier than a lot of people." At Vespers, the last communal pray- er of the day, the dialogue ceases. The nuns return late in the afternoon to their respective hermitages, 1.2 by 32 foot Spartan buildings, to pray in 'si- lence. They will not converse again until after morning Mass. Have the years of solitude brought answers to society's problems? "Pray," Sister Beverly says. "If ` you're not used to it, start. If you are, pray more. Prayer puts things in perspective jobs, relationships, priorities. You begin to look at things in terms of eternity instead of time. The more you pray, the more the pressures of the world fall away. "We try to always keep our eyes on Heaven. If we didn't, in a worldly sense, what we do here would be ridic- ulous." vagv � �of "f�yi >c Katherine Jones /The Idaho Statesman The Angelus is said three times a day in time to a sequence of bells.