Monastery of the Holy Cross - Chicago, IL - Abbeys, Convents and Monasteries on Waymarking.com

The monastery of the Holy Cross is a Benedictine Monastery in Chicago. The monastery is housed in part in the former Immaculate Conception church. The building was built in 1909 to serve the German community in the Bridgeport neighborhood. The church closed sometime in the 1980s due to dwindling attendance.

Here is the story of how the church became a monastery, from the monastery's website:

"The Monastery of the Holy Cross was formally established in 1988 when our three founding brothers...returned from a year’s novitiate with the Community of Jerusalem in Paris. Having spent several years in the missions in Haiti and Brazil, the three came to an agreement that God was calling them to form a community of prayer, a mission of evangelization to our own increasingly secularized culture.

"...His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Bernadin invited the community to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1991, where they could fulfill their particular charism of contemplation in the city. The timing was auspicious; the closing of some 40 parishes in 1989 had left a number of church buildings unused.

"Given a choice of the use of these former parish buildings, the brothers chose the former Immaculate Conception church, both for its nearness to downtown as well as for its remarkable beauty."

Today the community has a bed & breakfast and hosts retreatants.

Full name of the abbey/monastery/convent: Monastery of the Holy Cross Address: 3111 S. Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608 Religious affiliation: Roman Catholic, Benedictine Date founded/constructed: Building: 1909 Order: 1988 Web Site: [Web Link] Status of Use: Acitvely Used

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