Threshold - Summer 2006

The Journey of a Lifetime Begins with a Simple Yes

Sister Elizabeth Carrillo made her first profession at Mount St. Scholastica at vespers on the vigil of the Epiphany, January 7, 2006. A native of Arizona, Sister Elizabeth first came to Atchison as a volunteer at the monastery in the summer of 1997. She was not at that time involved in a church, but was drawn to the idea of intentional community and especially the Benedictine way.

She discovered the Mount while exploring the Internet, a new curiosity at that time, and found the volunteer experience so positive that she returned in 1998 and stayed for two years. By then, she realized that this was more than a passing attraction. “I fell in love with the community and the liturgy. It was so wonderful to have a group of people who share the love of God and the search for God.”
Sister Elizabeth, a violinist, holds a music degree from Boston University and gives lessons at the Mount Conservatory of Music. She also works as a paraprofessional at Atchison Middle School.

After the three years of discernment and study culminating in her first profession, she knew that God had led her on a path she never would have expected a few years previously. She is enthusiastic about this period leading to permanent commitment. “I truly want to bind myself more closely to Christ and to Christ’s presence in the world through this particular place and people.”


Sister Elizabeth proclaims her vows as Sister Anne Shepard listens.

A month later, on the feast of St. Scholastica, February 10, 2006, Sister Helena Niederbauer celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of her monastic profession .
Her journey was even longer and more radical than the young sister most recently professed. Like many other young German women between the World Wars, she was willing to sacrifice everything familiar to seek a better life as a Benedictine sister in the American “missions.” Now the dozens of other missionaries, including her own siblings, Sisters Alverna and Mary Bertrand Niederbauer, are gone and Sister Helena is the last of the many beloved German sisters.

Since returning to Atchison after a teaching career, she has assisted in the many household tasks of the monastery with quiet joy. When she is not deep in prayer in the chapel, she can still be seen moving at a pace which seems extraordinary for such a tiny woman of ninety-six years. When asked if she had ever expected to live so long, she laughs and answers “You stay until God takes you,” and she stays with gratitude as well.

“I owe a special thanks to God for bringing me here and keeping me all these years."


Sister Helena poses for a picture on her Jubilee day.