On a Divine Mission

Sister Theresa Scheuren, a Benedictine nun, made her first million in this desert hamlet nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

She’s working on her second million this weekend at a fall festival fund-raiser to help a monastery and its 25 monks.

Scheuren couldn’t imagine such a large sum of money until three years ago when, she believes, God called upon her to raise money for St. Andrew’s Abbey, a 750-acre ranch in the Antelope Valley where 25 Benedictine monks live amid apple orchards and towering trees.

One of her first assignments as director of development was to replace a worn 80-year-old water system at the former Hidden Springs Ranch. The Benedictine monks purchased the ranch in 1955 after they were expelled from China by the Communist regime.

The cost: $1 million.

“Not many people know we’re out here,” Scheuren said, laughing. “So I had to lean heavily on the Lord. I pray a lot.”

She prayed, wrote grants and designed and mailed brochures. And she prayed some more. The money trickled in. Hundreds of dollars, then thousands and--finally--a million.

The monastery now boasts a 2-mile water system with a 275,000-gallon storage tank and 14 hydrants.

Scheuren’s newest moneymaking ventures include organizing this weekend’s 43rd annual fall festival, the proceeds of which cover the monastery’s operating expenses, and scrounging up roughly $500,000 for a ceramics center where monks design, manufacture and ship their internationally known ceramic statues.

In recent weeks, Scheuren has not only been praying but baking for profit. Scheuren and dozens of volunteers have picked, peeled, cleaned and sliced apples to sell at the two-day festival, which is free except for a $4 parking donation.

“It’s apples and apples,” Scheuren said gleefully. “We’ll have apple pie, apple loaf cakes, apple nut bars, apple crisps, apple turnovers, dried apples, dried apple pie and the abbey’s trail mix with dried apples in it.”

Abbot Francis Benedict, who runs the monastery, praised Scheuren’s dedication. “She does the work of four people,” he said. “She believes in us, and she helps us to move forward.”

The festival--which will have food booths, arts and crafts, music and games--attracts thousands of people. In the past, it has raised $400,000 for the monastery.

“This is our bread and butter,” said Scheuren, who worked previously as a teacher and fund-raiser at St. Lucy’s Priory in Glendora since 1966.

Also featured at the festival will be hundreds of homemade ceramic plaques of biblical scenes and figures of the abbey’s popular wide-eyed angels and saints designed by Maur van Doorslaer, a Belgian monk who lives at the abbey for half the year.

St. Andrew’s monks started a ceramics workshop in 1969 to help defray costs of running the monastery, whose financial operations are independent of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The figures are sold nationwide in gift shops and Catholic stores.

The ceramic pieces are manufactured at the abbey in an old, cramped milk shed. Scheuren and the monks believe a new ceramics center will boost productivity.

She’s spearheading fund-raising efforts for a state-of-the-art building with 11,000 square feet of room for storage, shipping and manufacturing. The ceramics center will cost about $600,000 and Scheuren has already raised more than $100,000 from donations.

“Father Maur will have his own office,” Scheuren said. “Right now he works under the peach trees.”

Perhaps the most profitable part of the festival is the peaceful and scenic impression the monastery leaves on visitors. Although Scheuren believes the festival is an opportunity to celebrate the season and bring people together, she said some visitors become donors.

And the success of raising money, Scheuren said, is appreciating the small gifts.

Scheuren recalled a woman from Illinois who sent the abbey a check for $1. “It was the most beautiful check with a typed note that said, ‘Sister, I wish I could give more’,” she said. “It meant a lot to us.”

She laughed. “People ask me how I can raise money out here,” she said. “People used to ask Mother Teresa how she could take care of all those poor people. She said, ‘I take care of them one by one.’ I don’t think about a million dollars. I think about the small gifts.”

The 43rd annual Fall Festival runs today and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Abbey, 31001 N. Valyermo Road in Valyermo. Admission is free but parking is $4. For additional information, call (661} 944-2178 or go to https://www.valyermo.com.