Sister Mary Glenn died peacefully in the afternoon, surrounded by four of her Benedictine Sisters. Mary Margaret Glenn was born in Port Angeles, Washington. Water, and all of nature, have always been Mary’s sure source of Divine Life.
Mary grew up in Port Angeles with her parents, Lucile Weers and James Bernard Glenn, and her sisters, Patricia Lucile Glenn and Bridget Ann (Glenn) Armstrong. Mary attended Queen of Angels Grade School in Port Angeles and Holy Name Academy High School in Seattle. Every other Friday afternoon during high school, Mary, her sister Pat, and their friend Patty Whylam ran down Queen Ann Hill in Seattle to catch the ferry to ride across Puget Sound to return home. Mary moved away from the ocean to Mount Angel College in Mt. Angel, Oregon. She graduated in 1965 with a BA in sociology. On Ash Wednesday, 1965 she entered the Visitation Monastery in Tacoma, WA on the shore of Puget Sound and made final profession in December 1969.
She moved to western Colorado in 1971 with Sister Anne Madeleine Brost to start a new Visitation monastery with a more contemplative lifestyle. They built the new community in Whitewater, Colorado, on Kannah Creek. Mary exchanged the ocean waters for a mountain-desert creek. In 1978, when the Visitation Order did not accept the new community, it became an independent religious community under the Bishop of Pueblo, Charles Buswell. They lived a simple lifestyle and offered retreats and hospitality to local groups. Together they cared for the land and the creek, their home, and one another.
In 2006, the Whitewater sisters thought it wise to connect with a larger group of religious women and were accepted by the Benedictine Sisters of Benet Hill Monastery in Colorado Springs. Mary exchanged the Kannah Creek waters for the pine trees of the Black Forest and twenty-eight Benedictine Sisters when she and Sister Anne Madeleine moved from Whitewater to Benet Hill Monastery in 2019. In August 2021, Sister Mary accepted the position of Assistant Prioress of Benet Hill Monastery. She endeavored to model Christ to her community and others through a loving presence and compassionate listening. She was an avid reader and bread baker and loved to walk the monastery grounds being nourished by God’s beauty.
In March 2023, she was diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer and chose to let it take its course, without trying to prolong her days on this planet. Eternal Life was welling up in her. Hospice supported her to a peaceful and quiet death. She will be deeply missed by her sisters, Patricia and Bridget, brother-in-law Jerry Armstrong, nephews Alex, Taylor and David Smithburg, Curt Armstrong and their families. She will also be missed by her Benedictine Sisters of Benet Hill Monastery, especially Sister Anne Madeleine Brost, her companion member at the Whitewater Community, and many friends in Colorado and Washington.
