FORT SMITH (KFSM)- The St. Scholastica Monastery is planning to relocate to a new building.
The monastery is nearly 100 years old and the sisters who live there say its time for them to move to a new home.
“It’s a challenge for us,” Sister Maria Deangeli said.
The monastery opened in 1924 and has been Deangeli’s home since 1949. She said the new building where the sisters will eventually live is still on monastery property.
“The interim sisters will move to [Reliance Health Care] and then when we build our new building we will move to that place,” Deangeli said. “We put our work into three phases: first Reliance, that’s the nursing home, then our new monastery for ourselves and then we will decide what we do with [St. Scholastica Monastery].”
Deangeli said they need a building to care for their elderly sisters.
“We are downsizing from a big five, six-story building to a one-story building with two wings,” she said.
The new location will cost about $5 million dollars to construct and is expected to take two years to build. Deanglei said the sisters plan to fundraiser to make their plans a reality.
