Brief History

The Monastery of Mary the Queen was originally founded in Elmira, New York in 1944. Since 2014, through the generosity of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, we lived at their property at 1237 West Monroe Street until the fall of 2022. We are now actively living at the new Monastery. This translocation was a leap of faith towards actively fulfilling our dream of creating a new synergy with our Dominican family, the diocese of Springfield and the entire church.

To facilitate our Dominican contemplative life within the diocese of Springfield, Illinois we purchased 38 acres of greenfield land in Girard, Illinois. The 21,000 square foot Monastery is located on the west side of flat pasture land for ease of construction and to preserve the more beautiful characteristics of the property. The monastery continues to support the contemplative life and its connection to the natural environment.

Building our Monastery Journey

The progress on our Monastery building can be followed on our blog page.

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Priest House Progress

In addition to our Monastery, we also built a priest house for our chaplain on our property. View Photos >

Contact Us

We welcome any questions you may have regarding the Monastery.

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Meet the Nuns

Nuns at the first profession of Sister Catherine Marie with fr Don Goergen, OP and Father Dominic Rankin