The Dominican Sisters of Peace celebrated their 200th anniversary from April 2022 to April 2023, but there’s one final event slated to take place.
A monument will be erected and blessed to “pay tribute to” the enslaved people who were brought to St. Catherine, Ky., with the congregation’s founding members, said a news release from the sisters.
“The Dominican Sisters of Peace recognize the past injustice and wish to remember and honor those men and women who helped shape the future of the Dominican Sisters of Peace from the beginning 200 years ago,” the release said.
A blessing of the monument, located in the St. Catharine Motherhouse cemetery, will be held May 16 at 6 p.m.
In 2000, the St. Catharine Dominicans, the Sisters of Loretto and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth held a joint prayer service in Bardstown, Ky., where they asked for forgiveness for being slave owners.
In the years since, research has been done to identify some of the people they enslaved. Last September, the sisters hosted the “I Was Here” Project to further honor and remember the people who were enslaved there.
The news release noted that the enslaved men and women were “instrumental in the building of the original community.”
