Our History

OUR FOUNDATION: In the spring of 1878, Benedictine monks from St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana arrived and built some primitive living quarters in Creole (now Subiaco), Arkansas. The Sisters arrived in September that year, and since there was no place for them to stay, the monks moved out and let the Sisters have their quarters until the log cabin for the Sisters was finished 10 miles east in Shoal Creek. The four young founding Sisters were Sister Xaveria Schroeder, 34 years old and the only professed member of the group, Josepha Schmidt, 21, Bonaventura Wagner, 21, and Isidora Leuberman, 23. Two of these Sisters opened the first Catholic School in Logan County at St. Benedict's in Creole that year. The second school they established was St. Scholastica's in Shoal Creek in January 1879. To learn more about the history of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica in Fort Smith, you may click HERE.

“Hesychia” comes from a Greek word meaning “resting in God”. Resting in God is to be a part of our lives even in our most busy and pressured times. For this to happen, times and places when we can be immersed in silence and solitude can be most helpful.  Jesus himself recognized the need for this: “You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mk. 6:31). "Hesychia House of Prayer" was begun in 1981 by three Benedictine Sisters from St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith, AR, and continues to be a ministry of the Community.  Hesychia is built on the site of the original monastery which began in 1879.  The Community moved to Fort Smith in 1924-25, but retained the ownership of their property in Shoal Creek.  The Sisters built the hermitages for the ministry of the house of prayer and completed a new chapel and retreat facility residence in December, 1998.