Great Bend

Dominican Sisters of Great Bend - History
Great Bend, Kansas
Founded in 1902

On April 16, 1902, nine pioneer Sisters from Brooklyn, New York, left for Kansas.  They brought little more than faith with them as they traveled west to a place they had only read about through correspondence with Father Werner Emmerich, a pastor in Ellinwood, Kansas.  It was Mother Antonina Fischer’s dream to become a missionary, and with her came Srs. Blanche Bachlechner, Antonina Gerhold, Cunigunda Trojan, Dalmatia Hellriegel, Diana Trojan, and Florence Harrigan, and candidates Agnes Silberhorn and Mary Papsum.

The pioneers were supposed to settle in Wichita, where Bishop J. J. Hennessey had planned for his home to become their convent.  But he instead gave this home to the Precious Blood Sisters from Ruma, Illinois, and bought a college building, Central Normal College in Great Bend, which was soon to be vacant.  This was to become the home for the Sisters from Brooklyn.

From the beginning the pioneers faced hardship.  When they arrived in Great Bend on April 23, they were unable to move into their new home. After first waiting for the school session to end, then months of labor and thousands of dollars spent cleaning and repairing, the convent was finally dedicated in November 1902.

Almost immediately after arriving in Great Bend, the Sisters were asked to open a hospital.  But they had begun teaching in parochial schools as soon as they arrived in Kansas, and were busy trying to open St Mary Academy, a school for boys under age 15 and girls under 18.  Furthermore, none of the Sisters were registered nurses.  Mother Antonina wrote to Brooklyn requesting a registered nurse.  In 1903 Sr. Loretta Feinler came to Great Bend from Brooklyn to open St Rose Hospital.

The young congregation continued to struggle: the Sisters were overworked and had little food.  Some of the Sisters complained to the bishop, and many requested permission to leave the congregation.  In 1910, after much struggle and pressure from the bishop and the local priest, Mother Antonina resigned.  Mother Antonina was replaced as major superior by Sr. Seraphine Weisenberg, who was still in temporary vows.

With the resignation and replacement of Mother Antonina came yet another dilemma: loss of members.  There was confusion as to whom the Sisters should be loyal.  Some of them wished to leave the congregation altogether, while others requested permission to rejoin the Brooklyn congregation.  A few wanted to travel on with Mother Antonina.  She and three others – Srs. Antonina Gerhold, Cunigunda Trojan, and Geraldine Mueller – left the Great Bend community in search of ministry elsewhere.  A decade of beginnings ended in uncertainty.

At the time of Mother Seraphine’s appointment as major superior, there were 42 members in the congregation; this number quickly fell to 18.  Turbulence, illness, and financial problems plagued the young congregation during this decade.

The Psalms of St. Joseph were prayed every week for relief of financial burdens.  In 1913, when the sisters were able to pay the mortgage, a statue of St Joseph was placed in front of the motherhouse in gratitude.

In 1924, the Congregation was officially affiliated with the Order of Friars Preachers.  A dream was realized; the congregation was now part of the Dominican Order.

The old college building, built in 1888, which had served as the motherhouse since the Sisters’ arrival in 1902, was overcrowded and in constant need of repair. In 1929, the congregation had its first bazaar to raise money for the building of a new home.  Bishop Schwertner said they could begin building a new home only if they could raise $100,000.  This did not deter the Sisters; they continued working toward a seemingly impossible goal for more than a decade.  Despite the bleak economic situation, the congregation received donations and made sacrifices whenever possible to save money. Their sacrifices were rewarded when ground was broken for the new 250-room motherhouse on June 26, 1940. On October 7, 1941, after 18 months of construction, the new, spacious, brick convent building was ready for dedication. Among the many conveniences, the new building contained private rooms, a large chapel, an elevator, a dumb-waiter, walk-in refrigerators, a bakery, a sewing room, an infirmary, an auditorium, and a congregation room.

In celebration of its 50th year in Kansas, the congregation decided to begin a foreign mission.  Nigeria, West Africa was chosen as the destination for the mission.  Dominican Fathers were already present in Nigeria, and they extended an invitation to the Great Bend Dominicans.  It was the sisters’ goal to start a Nigerian mission in order to strengthen the local church.  In 1956, Srs. Raphael Husman, Frances Biernacki, and Charlotte Unrein became the congregation’s first foreign missionaries.  In 2007, what began as a mission officially became a separate congregation, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena. The sisters administer five schools, operate two clinics, manage a Christian training center for women, serve in parishes, and participate in primary evangelization.

In the 1978 Chapter meeting, the congregation adopted three areas of priority for the coming years: creative ministry to the elderly, development of leadership qualities in women, and solidarity with the economic poor.  In the years that followed, the Sisters worked within their own chosen ministries to fulfill these goals.  Some Sisters worked in the home health program, others worked with minorities.  Sr. Dominic Haug started Birthright, a program which offered a positive alternative to abortion.  Sr. Camillus Bayer studied Braille, ministered with the visually impaired, and taught Braille.  The Sisters began a decade full of actions toward peace and justice, ministering to the economic poor, disabled and elderly; expanding the health care ministry and setting a standard they would follow into the 21st century.

The 1980’s brought about numerous additions and renovations.  The motherhouse was remodeled, the congregation adopted a logo, and the Heartland ministries were established.

In 1998, the Congregation proclaimed the four years leading up to the Congregation centennial as Jubilee:
1998 - We proclaim the Renewal of the Sabbath
1999 - We proclaim Forgiveness and Reconciliation
2000 - We proclaim our Connectedness
2001 - We proclaim Justice and Peace
2002 - We proclaim Celebration!

In preparation for a new millennium and the beginning of another century in Kansas, the Congregation adopted a corporate stance against the death penalty and a corporate stance for kinship with and reverence for the Earth. Throughout all the preparation years, the summer theology workshops, yearly retreats, congregation gatherings and study heightened each one’s awareness and summoned all to make their hearts ablaze as the year 2002, the “year of Celebration” dawned.

On April 14, 2007, the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend Kansas voted – with unanimity of all Chapter delegates – to form a union with other Dominicans from across the United States. Two years later marked the birth of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, a new congregation of Dominican Sisters formed by the union of seven former congregations, including the Dominicans of Great Bend, Kansas.