Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes in Jordan. The simple chapel belies a complicated past.
1903 was a significant year in France for the Catholic Church. The church officially separated from secular government – catholic schools were no longer public schools, public monuments could not be religious in nature, and no taxes would go to the church. While there was not the level of anti-clericalism seen during the Revolution, that spirit still remained. Several religious orders became pressured to leave France for Canada or America. So the story of Catholicism in Jordan gained a second chapter.
Photograph from “These Valiant Women” book showing Jordan, Oregon in the late 1880s.
In a recent post, I took a look at some of the present monastic institutions operating in the State of Oregon. Driving on the busy Farmington Road – Oregon Highway 10 – takes you past the looming structure of the motherhouse for the congregation of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon. Like other Catholic stories here in Oregon, theirs begins in Germany – or at the time, Switzerland and the Hapsburg-dominated Duchy of Baden, both a long way from their eventual home in the rural Marion County hamlet of Jordan.
Sequoias line the entry road on the west side of the large grass field – the lawn brings memories of a Tualatin Valley losing more and more of its agricultural heritage every year. The Order today boasts on its ground’s schools ranging from preschool through high school, a care home for the elderly along with a memory care center. Everything has a beginning. The story underlying the Sisters is both unique and fascinating.
Bell tower rises above the monastery chapel atop Mount Angel.
Catholicism came to the Oregon Country as shown in an earlier post, in 1838 in response to the presence of Methodist missionaries who arrived four years prior and to a plea from local Hudson’s Bay Company employees allowed by the company to retire in Oregon with their Native American wives. The idea of monastic establishments – and here I will focus on Catholic monasteries – eventually followed though that was not well into the second half of the 19th century.
A quick aside, while most of the monastic communities are covered, there are the odd one or two missed – the small monastery just east of Eugene for several of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns. Also, one setting covered – the Grotto in northeast Portland – does include a monastery for men of the Servite Order, though since the order is a mendicant order – one who serves among the world as opposed to contemplative orders which try to isolate themselves – I am not sure of how much time those men housed here stay at home as opposed to using it more of a base to range out from.
