The Benedictine Sisters are celebrating 170 years of continuously creating ways of sharing Benedictine monastic spirituality in our city and beyond. As we look back we find many examples of faith, courage, and integrity in the lives of our foremothers and it is their inspiration upon which we continue to build.
One unique story involves bootleggers and the speakeasy they tried to run on the sisters' property--an incident so implausible that we decided to make it the core of the only fundraiser in our mix of anniversary commemorations: MOTHER IGNATIA'S BAN THE BOOTLEGGERS BASH. The event is Saturday, June 20 from 6 pm - 9 pm at Glinodo Center, 6270 East Lake Road across from the monastery. A $40 ticket includes two drink tickets (local beer and wine), hors d'oeuvres prepared by the monastery kitchen staff, and a souvenir logo cup. Musical entertainment will be provided by Tennesee Backporch. Tickets are now on sale, click here. Interested in being a Ban the Bootleggers sponsor? Contact Michelle Basista, CFRE, in the Benedictine Sisters Development Office: 814-899-0614 ext 2281 or [email protected] or download a sponsorship form. Thank you!
The background: In 1928 Mother Ignatia DePuydt courageously “banned the bootleggers” from the Benedictine Sisters’ lakeside property (now Glinodo Center) in Harborcreek. Mother Ignatia’s predecessor had unknowingly leased it to a bootlegger to “open a restaurant.” (As teachers in Catholic schools the sisters did not earn enough to support themselves and leasing the land would give them an income stream.) Mother Ignatia had the sisters gather the license plate numbers of the prominent men of Erie who frequented the bootleg establishment on their property. Facing down the proprietor’s revolver, she walked into the establishment with the list and said, “Gentlemen, this is a list of the names of Erie men who have been seen entering this disgusting establishment. I know who you are and I am shocked that so many of you are supposed to be good Catholics…the Sisters of St. Benedict are canceling the lease on this place. I won’t be intimidated by [the proprietor] or his revolver…I’ll be back…and if he hasn’t taken his possessions and vacated, this list will be published in local newspapers and read from the pulpit of every church in Erie.” This history is from David Frew’s book Midnight Herring: Prohibition and Rum Running on Lake Erie.
