The Community of St. Mary (CSM) is an Anglican religious order

Anglican religious order

Anglican religious orders are communities of laity and/or clergy in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule of life. The members of religious orders take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and lead a common life of work and prayer...

 of nuns with three independent houses located in Greenwich, New York

Greenwich (village), New York

Greenwich is a village in Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The village population was 1,902 at the 2000 census. Locals pronounce the name as it appears, in contrast to Greenwich , England...

, Sewanee, Tennessee

Sewanee, Tennessee

Sewanee is an unincorporated locality in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States, treated by the U.S. Census as a census-designated place . The population was 2,361 at the 2000 census...

, and Mukwonago, Wisconsin. The oldest indigenous Anglican order in the United States, it was founded in New York City in 1865 by a group of five sisters, and formally constituted by Bishop Horatio Potter

Horatio Potter

The Right Reverend Horatio Potter , was an Episcopal Bishop in the Diocese of New York.The youngest brother of Bishop Alonzo Potter, he was born near Beekman , Dutchess County, New York on 9 February 1802, to Quaker farmers Joseph and Anne Potter...

 of New York as the Sisters of St. Mary. The Episcopal Church was initially slow to recognize the order, and they only found wide support after four of the sisters died nursing victims of a yellow fever

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

 epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee in 1878. These four sisters are now commemorated by the Episcopal Church on September 9 as the Martyrs of Memphis or as Constance and her Companions. The community now consists of three independent provinces: Eastern, Western, and Southern.

The Eastern Province sisters moved in 2003 from Peekskill, New York

Peekskill, New York

Peekskill is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is situated on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point.This community was known to be an early American industrial center, primarily for its iron plow and stove products...

 to Greenwich, New York, where they share a 620 acres (2.5 km²) facility with the Spiritual Life Center of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany. Their rule of life is very similar to the Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 rule, and they lived a mixed life of prayer and service. The sisters pray five offices each day, and their Monastic Diurnal Revised is a popular prayer book for many outside of the community as well. The sisters engage in various activities, which include working at the healing center of the Spiritual Life Center, giving retreats, and serving on the board of Saint Mary's Hospital for Children. They also raise cashmere goats and chickens. Since 2000 they have been very involved with supporting the establishment of a new convent in Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

.

A branch house of the Eastern Province of the Order was established in Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

 in 2002. The initial group of Malawian sisters completed their novitiate at the American house, but now they have enough professed sisters to train novices in Malawi. They are hoping to establish a crisis nursery for babies whose parents are unable to care for them because of AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

. They also give presentations in churches, visit the sick, lead Bible studies, preach, and work on their farm, helping other women to learn sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...

 techniques.

The Southern Province sisters trace their descent from the remnants of the Memphis sisters. Their current chapel houses the altar, aumbry

Aumbry

In the Middle Ages an aumbry was a cabinet in the wall of a Christian church or in the sacristy which was used to store chalices and other vessels, as well as for the reserved sacrament, the consecrated elements from the Eucharist. This latter use was infrequent in pre-Reformation churches,...

, and chalice that were originally located in the Memphis house

St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis

St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, located near downtown Memphis, Tennessee, is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee and the former cathedral of the old statewide Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.-History:St...

. The sisters formerly operated a girls' school in Sewanee—St. Mary's Preparatory School for Girls—which closed at the end of the 1967-1968 school year. The school is now a retreat center that is available for individual and group retreats, in addition to hosting presentations on contemplative prayer. The convent and the retreat center are located only minutes from the campus of the Sewanee: The University of the South

Sewanee, The University of the South

The University of the South is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by twenty-eight southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church and its School of Theology is an official seminary of the church. The university's School of Letters offers graduate...

. The sisters say the office from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

, in addition to a daily mass, every day except Wednesday, which is the sisters' silent retreat day. The sisters also have a mission in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, which has been in existence for over thirty years.

The Western Province sisters pursue individual ministries, but are especially involved in offering retreats and spiritual direction at Mary's Margin in Mukwonago, Wisconsin

Mukwonago, Wisconsin

-Geography:Mukwonago is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 4.8 square miles , of which, 4.7 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is water.It is situated at the southwestern flank of the sprawling Vernon...

.

External links

• Website of the Community of Saint Mary.
• Online resources pertaining to the CSM from Project Canterbury.
• Documents on the Martyrs of Memphis
• The Rule of the Community of Saint Mary: A Study in Development by the Reverend Dr. Terrence Gleeson 2002
• St. Mary's Sewanee Spiritual Development Center
• Mary's Margin