By Mary Owen
The Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon will travel back to their roots on Aug. 16 to celebrate their 125th anniversary.
“They will be on a pilgrimage to Jordan and Sublimity, the first locations of the SSMO community,” said Karen Crandal, marketing and communications director for the order. “The trip is one of many events celebrating the sisters’ 125th anniversary.”
The sisters, joined by friends, parent and students, will first visit Jordan, the Catholic settlement they came to in 1884, and a presentation will be given. They will then travel to Sublimity, enjoy lunch, and visit St. Boniface Parish Museum before attending a short prayer service in the parish church.
“Many of the original buildings won’t be there any more, but they will want to go to the old cemetery in Jordan where some of the sisters and pioneer families are buried,” said Vangie Ripp, a worker at the St. Boniface Archives and Museum in Sublimity.
“They’re history is very interesting,” said Ripp, who expects them to also visit the cemetery at St. Boniface.
The SSMO community was founded in Sublimity in 1886, and the sisters began teaching in the local parish almost immediately. In 1891, Archbishop William H. Gross requested they serve at St. Mary’s Orphanage in Beaverton, where three years later a convent was constructed.
Education on the Beaverton campus began in 1903 and continues today. The sisters also run the Maryville Nursing Home, opened in 1963. The SSMO religious community now consists of 67 sisters residing at the Beaverton convent and at other locations, primarily in Oregon.
Sister Charlene Herinckx entered the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon after graduating from St. Mary of the Valley High School, now known as Valley Catholic. She took her newly-earned degree and began teaching at the high school.
“After several years of teaching, I was asked the leadership of my community to serve as the director of the new sisters,” she said. “Within a few years, I began to serve as the vocation director for seven years and then worked at the National Religious Vocation Conference office in Chicago for six years.” Herinckx has served in leadership for the SSMO community for 16 years. She said it is natural to take this pilgrimage on the 125th anniversary of its founding.
“The sisters who established our religious community in 1886 in the heart of the Willamette Valley are to be admired and honored for the legacy that they left us,” she said.
“Their commitment to love and care for their students and the orphans at St. Mary’s Orphanage in Beaverton is similar to the way everyone’s ancestors sacrificed and strategized to make a better life for those they loved,” she added. “So it was with the sisters who have gone on before us. On this pilgrimage, we will walk on the very ground they traversed.”
The sisters will also meet people who are relatives and friends of their predecessors, as well as view some of the treasures housed at the St. Boniface museum.
For Herinckx, the highlight of being in the SSMO community is learning about God’s love for her, and the ability to share that care and concern with others. “Through my community, I have been asked to serve in ways that I never would have dreamt possible,” she said. “It has been wonderful!”
The goal of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon, the only religious community founded in the state, is, Herinckx said, “By our commitment to this way of life, our sincere desire is to live as women of prayer in simplicity and sisterly love while serving the needs of others as compassionate, joyful servants of the Lord.”
Herinckx believes their outreach is exemplified in the theme for their Jubilee Year: “Gratitude – Service – and Hope.”
“We have hope for our future as we minister through various services we provide as we recall with gratitude the legacy of those who have blazed the trail before us,” she said. For a listing of Jubilee events and activities, visit www.ssmo.org.
