Archives

Saint Benedict’s Monastery maintains a physical and digital archive for use by scholars, genealogists and the general public to learn more about the lives of Benedictine women in the 19th century to the present day. Inquiries should be addressed to sbmarchive@csbsju.edu.

The archive staff uploads videos to our YouTube channel. This is an ongoing project, so keep checking back to learn more about the community’s history. You can also view digitized films that have been submitted to Minnesota Digital Library (Minnesota Reflections).

The Archives is located on the lowest level of the 1983 addition to Sacred Heart Chapel. A receptionist in the Gathering Place directs visitors to the Archives.

The Archives houses documents, photographs, sound and video recordings and motion picture film. The ongoing oral history program has, at present, approximately 600 transcriptions of audio tapes of interviews with sisters and lay associates.

The materials are descriptive of religious life and ministries of the sisters of Saint Benedict’s Monastery from the 19th century until the present. Although the sisters have had a presence in more than 100 places, those for which there are a significant number of records include the following:

“Sept 1974 SISTER IMOGENE TRAINED AS ARCHIVIST During the past few months Sister Imogene Blatz attended several meetings and institutes on archival administration. During this Institute Sister formulated a plan for the development of a community archival and records management program for the Sisters of St. Benedict.”

As a result, we believe we have a state-of-the art archives which allows us to provide excerpts from “The Chronicles.” Sister Imogene (right) is pictured with Sister Ruth Boedigheimer.