Sr. Alicia Kleiman professes perpetual vows as a Benedictine nun and is now known as Sr. Hilda.
Sentinel photo by Ellen Ast
MOUNT ANGEL — Sister Alicia Kleiman promised obedience, stability and fidelity to the monastic life Sunday.
The 31-year-old former English scholar made her perpetual monastic profession to the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Angel during a Mass at Queen of Angels Monastery. Sister Donna Marie Chartraw welcomed the young woman, who is now known as Sister Hilda, to the 126-year-old religious community.
Benedictine Abbot Peter Eberle officiated at the rite.
One of two children of Mick and Cindy Kleiman, Sister Hilda was raised in Dallas and graduated from Western Oregon University in 1999 with a B.S. in English and earned a master’s degree in English from Oregon State University in 2001.
“She brings many talents, especially in the literary field, and a generous spirit to our Benedictine life of prayer and service,” Sister Donna Marie said.
Kleiman brings the order’s number of professed sisters to 39 while the number of oblates — lay people connected to the monestary — is at 85 and continues to rise, said Steve Ritchie, director of the Benedictine Foundation of Oregon. Sister Gertrude Feick, 43, took her final vows in February 2007. Sister Miriam Hendrikson, 57, is in formation and will take her vows sometimes in the next two years.
Baptized at age 4, Sister Hilda attended the Episcopal church in Dallas. While at Oregon State, she began attending Communion service at the Newman Center and eventually started to attend Mass at St. Mary Parish in Corvallis. To her initial surprise, this experience “felt like coming home,” and this sense of belonging led her to be confirmed as a Catholic in June 2000.
Her first visit to the monastery came in 2002 after she read the Rule of St. Benedict and was impressed with the “sane way of life” laid out in the Rule. Following several months of regular visits to the monastery, as well as contacts with other religious communities, she entered the Benedictines in 2002 and professed temporary vows two years later.
“Since I have been here, I’ve known this is the way I want to spend my life,” said Sister Hilda, who took her new name after St. Hilda of Whitby, a Benedictine abbess of the seventh century.
“It’s not just me deciding that, it’s a call that came from outside myself. I have a deep impression that this is the place I need to be to learn what I need to know.”
Both Sisters Hilda and Gertrude wear a black habit, based on St. Benedict’s rule of simple dress, a version of one traditionally worn by the sisters until the late 1960s when they were no longer required, Ritchie said.
Sister Hilda works part-time in the Shalom Prayer Center office and bookstore and is pursuing a master’s degree in theology at Mount Angel Seminary.
She is a frequent presenter at Shalom Prayer Center, where her recent retreat workshops have been “A day with William Stafford” and “Our daily bread: A day of reflection on eating.”
A published poet and a strong writer and reader, she also speaks regularly to school and church groups on religious life and a variety of other topics.
“I feel I am very much meant to be a Benedictine,” Sister Hilda explained.
“For me this is the right thing to be doing and the right time to be doing it. While this particular time in our community’s history is a real challenge, I feel willing to take that challenge on.”
She is particularly interested in how connections between literature and theology are made, and feels that, with a background in both areas, she can contribute something that may be of value to people on their spiritual journey.
“My background in literature, writing and teaching seems to match up well with what people want and need to know.”
She is scheduled to present a retreat day on the “Spirituality of Reading” at Shalom this September, and will also present a retreat at Shalom for needleworkers in November.
