(718) 233-2877
mon.edithstein@servidoras.org
(The sisters accept prayer requests by e-mail as well as by written letter.)
Contemplative Community St. Edith Stein
Attn: Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará
Monastery of the Precious Blood
5400 Fort Hamilton Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11219
Brooklyn, NY
Serving in the Diocese of Brooklyn
The Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará is made up of two branches – active and contemplative – which are part of the one Religious Family of the Incarnate Word and are united under the same spirit, charism and mission. Our contemplative sisters contribute to the missionary activity and fruitfulness of the Religious Family and the Church through the testimony of their hidden and silent lives, dedicated to prayer and penance.
We have over fifteen contemplative communities around the world, including contemplative formation houses. You may also learn more about our life by reading about daily life in the monastery, and “questions about contemplative life.”
The Contemplative Community St. Edith Stein was founded on December 17, 1998 in Flatlands, Brooklyn. Then in 2012, they were invited to move to the historic Monastery of the Precious Blood in Borough Park, Brooklyn. This monastery was founded by the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood in 1910 and has been in use since that time. Our contemplatives live with a small number of Sister Adorers still present in the monastery.
Each of our contemplative communities is entrusted with a particular prayer intention. This community prays for the salvation of the Jewish people and is under the patronage of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St. Edith Stein), a Jewish philosopher and convert to Catholicism, who died as a Carmelite nun in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.
Our Patroness | St. Edith Stein (1891-1942)
Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany, on October 12, 1891, the youngest of seven children in a prominent Jewish family. Edith abandoned Judaism as early as 1904, becoming a self-proclaimed atheist. Arduously seeking truth, she entered the University of Gottingen. There she earned a doctorate in 1916 and emerged as one of Europe’s brightest philosophers. One of her primary endeavors was to examine phenomenology from the perspective of Thomistic thought, part of her growing interest in the Catholic teachings. Propelled by her reading of the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, she was baptized on January 1, 1922. In 1934, she entered the Carmelite Order. But in 1938 she was moved from her monastery in Germany into another Carmelite monastery in the Netherlands to escaped mounting Nazi oppression. She was arrested in 1942 as part of the order by Hitler to liquidate all non-Aryan Catholics and was taken to Auschwitz, on August 9 or 10, 1942. There she died in the gas chambers. Pope John Paul II canonized her on October 11, 1998. Many of her written works have been translated in critical editions by the Institute of Carmelite Studies (ICS). These include: “Science of the Cross”, “Woman”, and various other philosophical writings.
2013 Article from “The Tablet”:
“Two Communities Share Local Cloister”
2011 Article from “The Tablet”:
“Brooklyn Cloister in Stitches”
Video about the Monastery – City of Churches:
The sisters’ meeting with Pope Francis in September 2015 at JFK:
The perpetual vows of one sister in March 2014:
While daily contemplative life is centered around an intense life of prayer, a portion of work time is dedicated to manual works such as making liturgical vestments, altar cloths and linens, brown scapulars, and rosaries, etc.
These items may be requested, and a donation made in thanksgiving for such commissioned work, which help support the needs of the convent and community.
For inquiries, please contact our sisters:
Contemplative Community St. Edith Stein
Attn: Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara
Monastery of the Precious Blood
5400 Fort Hamilton Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11219
