About
The Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph are a Roman Catholic community of cloistered religious nuns, the first community of Norbertine Canonesses in the United States. Living a cloistered contemplative life of prayer and sacrifice following the Rule of St. Augustine, Norbertine Canonesses strive to continue the 900 year tradition begun by St. Norbert: to build up a community united in divine charity, with “one heart and one soul seeking God.” (Acts 4:32)
“Let us love God above all things, dearest sisters, then our neighbor; for these are the chief commandments given to us.”
Rule of St. Augustine
The ancient tradition of Norbertine Canonesses is the solemn and reverential celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, the prayer of the Church, in which all the needs of the world are brought before the Triune God, Who is praised, adored, and glorified. From the Order’s beginning, this prayer has overflowed from the choir into the external works of the arts and study, hospitality to the poor, to guests and pilgrims, as well as agricultural and domestic duties.
“…some Sisters ought to head the cheesemaking…”
from the First Statutes of the Norbertine Order (12th Century)
Among these traditions from the 12th century is cheesemaking. The sisters in the Norbertine monastery at Prémontré, France, the first house of the Order, made cheese as one of their duties, a service for the monastic community and for the sick, poor and pilgrims who came to the monastery door. These first daughters of St. Norbert must have developed their own in-house cheesemaking recipes, specific to their locality in northern France and in response to needs of the those they served. Now, over 900 years later, the tradition of Norbertine cheesemaking continues in the “New World,” at the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph.
The simple process of making cheese is a very apt image of the “one heart and one soul seeking God” (Acts 4:32), or communio, that our Rule calls us to: many curds cooked and stirred and pressed together, form a single cohesive whole, which is aged and brought to perfection as one. All our work, be it study or hospitality, tending the animals or making cheese, are so many ways in which a Norbertine community, in and through Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, seeks to radiate the prayer of praise and petition in the Liturgy to the whole world, and thus bring all of creation back to God.
