Our Community Today
The Dominican Monastery of St. Jude is a community of Nuns of the Order of Preachers.
We live our consecration to God through our common life of religious vows, liturgical and private prayer, study, and work, at the heart of the Holy Preaching of the Dominican Order.
Our community has a special love for the traditional chant of our Order, and keeps a continual vigil of praise and intercession in Eucharistic Adoration and Perpetual Rosary.
Currently, our community spans four generations, and our Sisters hail from all corners of the US. Founded in 1944, our monastery is located in central Alabama, USA, in the Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres (Southern Province), and in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile.
What our Vocation Means to our Dominican Friars and Sisters
“Our holy Father Dominic instituted the Dominican nuns as an essential part of the Order and an efficacious help to the life and apostolate of the brethren. This contemplative life, ‘the best part’ of the Christian life, has always held a most important place in the Church and the Order, but perhaps today is more necessary than ever before to the Church, to the Order and to society.”
—Fr. Anicetus Fernandez, O.P., Master of the Order
1971 Letter introducing the new Constitutions
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The Dominican nuns in Marbury, Alabama exemplify the power of prayer and consecrated life that St. Dominic recognized when founding the cloistered nuns before the friars. Our Sisters in Marbury have been close friends and spiritual powerhouses throughout my priestly ministry. As vocations director, I sent them names of candidates, and their prayers helped our vocations program flourish. Now, at the Angelicum in Rome, I continue to seek their intercession, which brings tremendous blessings to all of us and the work we do for the entire Church. Their vocation is one of fruitfulness, praying for the Church and the Dominican Order's work of preaching and teaching the Truth of Jesus Christ. I'm deeply grateful for their friendship and their prayers.
—Fr. Benedict Croell, O.P.
Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome -
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Cloistered nuns have been a part of the Dominican Order from the very beginning. Part of my assignment as Novice Master is to introduce the novices to the Dominican charism. We visit our nuns in Marbury, Alabama, to experience their prayer and learn about the history and culture of Catholic Dominican life in the Southern United States. Knowing that our nuns are constantly praying for us and then being able to participate in their prayer and way of life fills me and the novices with joy and gratitude, knowing that the manner of life started by our Holy Father St. Dominic is alive and well. Their preaching through prayer, contemplation, and study gives us the strength to preach from the pulpit and deepen our prayer life.
—Fr. Francis J. Orozco, O.P.
Master of Novices for the Province of St. Martin de Porres (Southern US) -
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The pine and cedar forests of Central Alabama hide a powerful spiritual secret that I first learned of forty years ago. Simply and joyfully, “hidden with Christ in God” in Marbury, Alabama, the nuns of the Monastery of St. Jude authentically live the 800-year-old Dominican charism with a humble zeal. Their choral prayer is beautiful, giving God the glory. Their love for Him is so deep and dear, animating their daily routine. Because of their prayers in the choir and in the cloister, I know a peace and joy in my apostolate of teaching, even in the midst of activity. Their prayers support billions of people around the world, my St. Cecilia Sisters, and me.
—Sister Margaret Andrew Baker, O.P.
Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia (Nashville Dominicans) -
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The Monastery of Saint Jude is a wonderful place to live a life of prayer and grow in grace. The nuns here have an amazing devotion to Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, to the holy Rosary, and to prayer and study centered on the Word of God. Their life is inspirational, their liturgy is beautiful, and their prayers are powerful. The silence and recollection in the monastery is palpable, and the surroundings serve to cultivate the interior life very deeply. Every time I visit I come away much better for it on so many levels. This Monastery is truly an amazing blessing to the Dominican Order and to the whole Church. Any young woman who is seeking deep union with the Lord should come and see!
—Fr. James Dominic Brent, O.P.
Host, Contemplata Podcast -
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When Mary appeared at Fatima on 13 October 1917, she said: "I am the Lady of the Rosary", and she asked the little seers of Fatima to "continue to pray the Rosary every day." Since the early centuries of the Dominican Order, we have been devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary, and have placed ourselves and the whole world under her care. In particular our Dominican nuns live out this special call of Our Lady of the Rosary to pray the Rosary daily, even continuously as our nuns do at Marbury, for peace and for the salvation of souls. Their presence in our Dominican Family is a reminder to me of the priority of prayer and contemplation in our Order; prayer and study of God's Word must precede an act as noble as preaching and teaching divine Truth.
—Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Promoter General of the Rosary for the Order of Preachers -
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Upon meeting the Dominican nuns in college, I was deeply struck by their joy and radiance, and the peacefulness of the monastery, heaven on earth. Marbury is located halfway between home and college, so I delighted at every opportunity to visit. On one occasion, I timidly shared my plans to enter the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. In response, the nuns were overjoyed that I had found my vocation and enrolled me in their perpetual prayers, providing further encouragement and confidence. Their love of God’s will has inspired me in my work of helping young people hear God’s call. The prayers and sacrifices of Dominican nuns support the Church, the Dominican Order and me in ways that we’ll only understand fully in heaven.
—Sister Stephen Patrick Joly, O.P.
Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist (Ann Arbor)
The Basics
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Cloistered nuns are women called by God to dedicate themselves totally in love to Him through a life of conversion, prayer, penance, community, study, and work within the limits of the enclosure of the monastery. Led by the Holy Spirit, we imitate Jesus in His poverty, chastity, and obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father. Our life symbolizes the total dedication of the Church as the Bride of Christ, and her ultimate fulfillment in Heaven.
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Dominicans, like Franciscans or Carmelites, can be compared to a spiritual family within the Roman Catholic Church. St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers (the official title of the Dominican Order) to contemplate and preach the Truth of Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls. This is the basis of our distinctive emphasis in living out our religious life and our Catholic Faith: doctrinal, communal, liturgical, Eucharistic, Marian, and apostolic.
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Our daily life is highly structured, centered around prayer, community, and daily work. We gather seven times a day to sing God’s praise and intercede for the world by singing Psalms and other prayers. Throughout the rest of the day, one Sister is always “on duty” in the chapel pondering the mysteries of Jesus in the prayer of the Rosary in praise and intercession. The other Sisters continue the daily work of normal household tasks: cooking, cleaning, maintenance, etc. There is a balance of solitude and community life, work, study and recreation. In the midst of the normal challenges of human existence, our life is full of the happiness and joy that only freedom to live totally for God can bring.
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We have an electronic bell tower that chimes the hours throughout the day, sending out God’s blessing to all our neighbors here in Marbury. Shortly after 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., the tower plays musical chimes; during the special liturgical seasons surrounding Christmas and Easter, or on special feast days, we play recorded hymns and sacred choral music (such as Handel’s Messiah during Advent). If you are a neighbor or guest, we hope this music lifts your heart to God.
Our Story
The three sections below highlight the triple strand of our monastery’s story: the Dominican nuns, the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary, and our monastery’s foundation in Marbury.
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The Beginning: The Origin of the Dominican Nuns
In the year 1206, Saint Dominic brought together a group of women at Prouille, France, to form the first community of Dominican Nuns. From the very beginning of the Dominican Order, Saint Dominic associated his nuns with the Holy Preaching of the brethren through their lives of contemplation, liturgical prayer, study, and sacrifice. Saint Dominic founded the community of enclosed nuns ten years before he founded the preaching friars, knowing that the success of his Order of Preachers would be dependent on and intimately connected with the intercession of his spiritual daughters.
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A New Branch: The Perpetual Rosary
In 1880, the French Dominicans Fr. Damien-Marie Saintourens and Mother Rose of St. Mary founded the cloistered Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary. As Our Lady’s Guard of Honor, the Perpetual Rosary Sisters lived the observances of the contemplative Dominican life, with an exceptionally strong Marian devotion. They were to pray the Rosary perpetually in praise and intercession, taking turns at their Hours of Guard throughout the day and night, and always cherishing the mysteries of Christ in their hearts in union with Our Lady. Over time, the Perpetual Rosary monasteries became incorporated into the Dominican nuns proper.
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Marbury Foundation: The Dominican Monastery of St. Jude
In 1944, Mother Mary Dominic of the Rosary and Mother Mary of the Child Jesus founded a community that would open the cloistered vocation to all young women whom God called, regardless of race. At that time, an interracial community was revolutionary, but our Mothers focused on the meaning of our Dominican vocation: to live as “one mind and heart in the Lord” in a community life overflowing with love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, zeal for the salvation of souls, reverent liturgical worship, tender devotion to Our Lady, and all the treasured observances of our Dominican life today.
