The Founding of the St. Scholastica Community in Shoal Creek, Arkansas
Benedictine Sisters, St. Scholastica Monastery, Fort Smith, Arkansas
On January 23, 1879, two of the four sisters who had come the previous September from Ferdinand, Indiana to work with the Benedictine monks in Subiaco, Arkansas, moved into St. Scholastica Convent in Shoal Creek, Arkansas. The sisters lived and worked in a four-room log cabin that functioned as both a school and a convent. Nine years later, the convent at Shoal Creek became an independent motherhouse. The community elected Mother Meinrada Lex as the first prioress, with nine sisters and three novices. The sisters staffed three schools – Subiaco, Shoal Creek, and St. Boniface in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The community grew quickly, and in 1892 fifteen sisters made Perpetual Profession. By 1897 the sisters staffed eighteen schools, and in 1906 the community had grown to include eighty-one sisters, including fourteen novices.
