SOUTH OGDEN — The six sisters of Mount Benedict Monastery will be honored this month with the Lieutenant Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award follows 66 years of Ogden-area involvement from 135 sisters from the Order of St. Benedict.
“It’s very humbling,” said Sister Danile Knight. “We’re just standing on the shoulders of some very brave women who came before us. We can’t overlook them.”
Knight said that in earlier decades the sisters often went without as they struggled financially while serving earnestly.
Sister Stephanie Mongeon recognized others who will also be awarded April 25.
“We’ll stand tall with all the wonderful people who have made a significant impact on the state of Utah,” she said.
With a goal of bringing goodness, peace and hope, Mongeon said she daily witnesses “the amazing gifts of God working to his people, and we happen to be among them.”
The sisters will be honored at 6 p.m. April 25 at a banquet at Davis Conference Center, 1651 N. 700 West, in Layton.
The sisters of the Order of St. Benedict came to Ogden to found St. Benedict’s Hospital and a school of nursing.
“When the hospital was sold, it brought an end to their sponsorship in the hospital, but the sisters were undeterred,” reads a history of the sisters. “Their dedication to the disadvantaged simply took on an additional form of service on both the individual and community levels.”
Through the sisters’ St. Benedict’s Foundation, more than $4.5 million has been granted to Top of Utah organizations. That positively changed the lives and futures of more than 8,000 individuals each year.
“They truly, in every sense of the word, have volunteered their lives to bless and help their fellow men,” wrote Jeanne Hall, of Roy, in a letter of support for the sisters’ award.
Hall is a board member of the Utah Commission on Volunteers and a two-term board member on the sisters’ foundation.
The sisters were nominated by Bob Hunter, president and CEO of United Way of Northern Utah.
“Their presence is a bastion of strength and goodness for our community,” Hall wrote. “When our narcotic strike force officers were killed and wounded in January, Sister Stephanie was immediately a spokesperson for grief counseling.”
Hall said even at their advanced ages, the sisters are an integral part of helping the community of Northern Utah.
“Their goodness and love extends far beyond any race, creed or religion,” she wrote. “They truly, in every sense of the word, have volunteered their lives to bless and help their fellow men.”
“As volunteers, the sisters dedicate hundreds of hours each year to organizations such as United Way of Northern Utah, Ogden Regional Medical Center, Seager Memorial Clinic and Weber Coalition for Healthy Community,” states the sisters’ history. “They provide public speaking topics on good health, gratitude, and spirituality.”
The sisters donate their blood, with one sister responsible for giving more than 40 gallons of blood and platelets.
“They bake homemade breads, jams and muffins to be auctioned at charitable events with their beautiful, crocheted, baby items,” states the history. “Each year, on Thanksgiving morning, they organize the Turkey Run, a community walk/run event to raise money and food for the local homeless shelters.”
So far, the sisters’ foundation has sold six tables to those who plan to attend the awards presentation in support of the sisters.
Tickets for the banquet are $25. To purchase them through the foundation, call 801-479-1800.
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