A sentimental centennial

Celebrating 100 years of service by the Religious of Jesus and Mary at Bethany in Highland Mills, By Bob Curtis Highland Mills - The American province of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, an international Roman Catholic community of religious women, marks its 100th anniversary this spring on the Highland Mills property on Route 105 that the sisters have called home since 1911. To mark this milestone, the sisters are holding the “Soles for Souls” Walk/Run 5K on Saturday, April 30, a first-ever benefit for their spiritual retreat ministry of the Bethany Spirituality Center. But why is this special fund raiser needed? Bethany bookkeeper, Sister Doris Bissonnette, herself a 53-year member of the religious order, explains that religious institutions are at the mercy of the tough economy. Regarding the Thevenet Montessori School, which shares the Bethany site, Sister Doris remarked: “The school has been able to manage on its own income, but that is not so for retreat houses such as Bethany, as we know from the fact that the Esopus facility has had to close, as well as the Spellman Retreat House in Riverdale. And others are on the brink. So this unique 100th anniversary fund-raising event is primarily for the benefit of Bethany Spirituality Center.” Sister Teresita Morse, co-chair of the event, explained the symbolic nature of this walkathon: “The 84 Religious of Jesus and Mary of the province who have ministered in Highland Mills probably each walked an average of 100 miles a year simply doing their work. This is little more than a quarter mile a day, but it totals at least 84,000 miles,” she said. “On April 30, we will walk in solidarity with all the RJMs who have gone before us. We walk in gratitude to them, in fidelity to their mission, and in the effort to begin another 100 years of alleviating the greatest misfortune. The surrounding community’s generous support of this benefit event will help the sisters to continue their ministry in Highland Mills.” Leave the city heat The Bethany Spirituality Center has served people of varied religious denominations from the local community as well as groups from the 50 states and around the world for almost 40 years. The center offers retreats for young people preparing for confirmation, people struggling with addiction, couples who seek to improve their marriage, women’s wellness weekends, and a myriad of programs, both spiritual and secular. Upon entering the site, one first sees a winding, tree-lined road leading to the center’s multiple buildings. The campus is dotted with statuary, peaceful grottos, spectacular lakeside views and multiple areas for meditation and reflection. “In the early 1900’s, Mother St. Clare, mother general of the Congregation, came from Rome to our convents in New York City - 14th Street - and the Bronx,” Sister Doris said in explaining how the Bethany site in Highland Mills was chosen as a RJM convent. “(Mother Claire) determined that a place was needed for the sisters to leave the city heat occasionally for rest and peacefulness - both recreational and for spiritual retreats.” After more than 50 years as a member of the RJM province, Sister Doris reflected: “Being here at Bethany has been a special time for me. I’ve always been attracted to prayer and solitude, but being in an active, apostolic order doesn’t quite lend itself to solitariness. Here, I have plenty of space to be quiet, to take in the beauties of nature which are one of the greatest helps to experiencing the nearness of God. And I also find time to meet with people for spiritual direction, and to direct others on their personal retreats.” Community connections Sister Doris also explained the convent’s relationship to the community in this way: “At the time of Vatican II in the early 1970’s, we became rightfully defined as an apostolic congregation, meaning that we were involved in external ministries - primarily teaching for us. We are also an international community, and have had some nurses working in mission countries.” “Our foundress, Saint Claudine Thevenet, had a deep sense that the greatest misfortune in this world is 'to live and die without knowing God.’ This was her experience, having lived through the French Revolution and its aftermath. When we closed the girl’s high school here, the religious community thought that a retreat house/spirituality center would be a good fit with Saint Claudine’s heart - and after all, we had a whole wing of empty bedrooms. “One story stays in my memory,” she continued. “Some years back in the 1970-80’s, Sister Cora, who was the then-treasurer/plant manager, was well known because she had many dealings with the business community. Everyone knew when she was in town doing business because there would be a car with no visible driver - she was very short. “Many young men did a good deal of volunteer service for her, and apparently she was quite the task-master,” Sister Doris added, “ but they learned a lot about good work habits.”

If you go
The “Soles for Souls” Walk/Run 5K on Saturday, April 30, is a benefit for the spiritual retreat ministry of the Bethany Spirituality Center.
Sponsored by Woodbury Pharmacy, Smith, Seaman & Quackenbush Funeral Homes, Inc., ShopRite of Monroe and Newburgh Toyota, the event will be held at the Earl Reservoir in Highland Mills
Registration begins at 10 a.m., and the Walk/Run 5K kicks off at 11, with prizes to be awarded and a picnic lunch provided for all participants.
Participants can raise donations by asking family, friends or co-workers to sponsor them.
A minimum of $25 in pledges or a $25 registration fee is required to take part in this family fun day.
To register, visit www.bethanyspiritualitycenter.org.

Walking back in time
Highland Mills - The largest portion of the RJM Sisters of Bethany Spiritual Center’s 78-acre property was purchased from the estate of the late U.S. Sen. Thomas Collier Platt, best-known as a “political boss” of New York’s Republican Party in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The property had also previously been known as Tioga Lodge, a summer vacation destination for well-to-do New York City dwellers. Subsequently, the sisters learned that Platt’s summer residence, which still functions as the RJM order’s home, had also served as a planning site for many political projects, where a galaxy of politicians and officials often dined. Among the senator’s guests were William Marcy, President William McKinley and Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt. The Religious of Jesus and Mary added to the former Platt property an adjoining parcel of land on which stood the Cromwell Lake House, a local hotel that was destroyed in a fire in the early 1900s.
Not long after the sisters established a convent in Highland Mills, the RJM community opened a school on their grounds. The Academy of Jesus and Mary for Girls was founded in 1914, opening its doors with three local students: Lucille Armstrong and Cornelia and Marie Etzel. Cornelia entered RJM and took the religious name of Sister Mary Adrian. These two students of the early Academy were co-proprietor of Ace Farms, Tyler Edsel Jr.’s aunts.
The Academy enrolled both boarding and day students from New York, Brooklyn and Long Island, as well as girls from Latin America, where RJM members also lived and served. In 1930, the school was renamed Thevenet Hall Academy for Girls after the family name of the RJM community’s foundress, St. Claudine Thevenet.
The renamed school served many local and international students until 1971 when, due to declining enrollment, the Academy closed.
Shortly afterward, the Sisters opened the Bethany House of Prayer (now the Bethany Spirituality Center) in the same building that housed the Academy and original Thevenet Montessori School.