Some of Our History Finds New Homes

by Sr. Regina Siegfried, ASC

Were the moves of the martyrs’ statue and the Ruma archive the end of an era or a new beginning?

They were both.

On October 17, the statue of the martyrs was relocated from the front of the building to the cemetery. The Lager Monument Company carefully, respectfully, and slowly lifted the heavy statue, loaded it on a flatbed, drove it to the cemetery, and lowered it to its new pedestal in the circle where the fountain had been. It looks like it’s always been there, comfortable in its new home.

On October 24, three employees of Flawless Moving Company, a moving company from E. St. Louis who had moved the Sisters to Benedictine Living Community, joined our staff of Tracy Malley, Justin Eggemeyer, Bill Allan, and Scott Brothers to load heavy boxes of archival documents onto a truck for their journey to the Wichita Center where they arrived around 10:00 p.m. with Dakota Heard, Bri Southworth, Sr. Angela Laquet, Butch Payne, and Ishmael Paes waiting to welcome them.

Dakota, Justin, and Tracy’s good and meticulous planning had made this an efficient and safe trip. As I watched the boxes being loaded into the truck, I knew that my job was to worry, feel very sad, and pray to Clementine for a safe trip for items that had come from Germany along with a lot of what we had accumulated since 1876.

Other artifacts are also in new homes. The statues of Mary and Joseph, formerly in the back of the chapel, are now in the cathedral in Belleville. Three staff members from the Illinois History Museum in Springfield visited recently and acquired some artifacts, long hidden in the attics. Erika Holst, curator of the museum, wrote, “It’s an honor to steward the Adorers’ items and to help share their story with the people of Illinois.”