About the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa:
Our desire as Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa is to live and love at the heart of the Church. This is, in part, lived out through their charism of living the fullness of the Church’s liturgical life. When the late Holy Father Benedict XVI issued the Moto Proprio Summorum Pontificum and the accompanying letter to the Bishops in 2007, he envisioned that the peaceful mutual enrichment of the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite would be “an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church.” This Moto Proprio (since revised) shared a vision of enhancing the beauty and dignity of the Sacred Liturgy which influenced the founding of their community and continues to influence the living of their consecrated life.
Bishop Robert F. Vasa, invited their Superiors to found a community to make visible the invisible reality of God’s love in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. By this ecclesial action, the Holy Spirit called forth our charism of communicating the Catholic faith through joyful evangelization and a rich liturgical life. Bishop Vasa formally approved the Constitutions of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa and canonically erected the community on January 4, 2012.
Since their founding, by God’s grace and the enthusiastic support of the good people of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, the community has grown and its active apostolates have expanded. Committed to the spread of the faith in their Diocese, every Sister teaches the faith in some manner. While some are formal classroom teachers, most of the Sisters exercise the charism more broadly through children’s catechesis, faith formation groups, retreats and camps, and any other way in which God’s will is made manifest.
They have the privilege of participating in both Forms of the Roman (or Latin) Rite in our chapel several times a week and it is our honor to provide the choir for the Extraordinary Form High Mass at the Cathedral each Sunday. Our communal understanding of the both Forms enables us to appreciate and share the full richness of this key aspect of the Church’s life. We strive in all our apostolates to give the traditions of the Church their “proper place” while living fully present in our current age.
Called to a life of total consecration to Christ and His Church, we take the Blessed Virgin Mary as their inspiration and model and dedicate our time and talents completely to the service of God and neighbor. They recognize the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a gift of the Most Holy Trinity which they embrace by vow in loving response to their call to religious consecration. These vows constitute the essence of their religious lives and impart stability and higher consecration. They lovingly compel us to live them Christ lived in areas which cover our whole life: possessions, affection and autonomy.
About the Convent of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa:
The Ursuline Sisters, who have served in Santa Rosa for more than 130 years, graciously agreed to sell them their convent and property at 400 Angela Drive.
The acquisition of the convent and property was a big step for their Community, and they are excited to share this journey with you as they move into their new home and create a place where God is loved and served above all else.
Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa
Mater Dei Convent
400 Angela Dr.
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
