Holy Wisdom Monastery

09/06/2026

09/04/2026

When Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers visited on Aug. 27, Director of Operations, Toby Grabs, led the Governor and his guests on a tour of the LEED-certified monastery building, the electrical rooms, which highlight our geothermal projects, and the ground-mounted solar field.

08/31/2026

During Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers visit on Aug. 27, Sisters Lynne Smith, Mary David Walgenbach and Everline Jeruto, along with Executive Director, Erin Trondson, greeted the Governor.

They told him about the history of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Wisdom Monastery, their mission in action today, and ways the communities of Holy Wisdom care for the earth which is rooted in the Benedictine values of stability and respect for all of creation.

08/29/2026

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers visited Holy Wisdom Monastery on Thursday, Aug. 27, to learn about how the monastery’s recent solar and geothermal energy projects are part of Wisconsin’s future of clean energy. Holy Wisdom Monastery is now a net-zero energy campus and produces 100% of our energy needs onsite from renewable resources.

Some guests of the Governor included Summer Strand, Public Service Commission of Wisconsin Chairperson, Maria Redmond, Wisconsin Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy Director, Ismaeel Chartier, RENEW Wisconsin Executive Director, Alex Joers, WI State Assembly, and Kerry Schumann and Jennifer Giegerich from Wisconsin Conservation Voters. These organizations had let the Governor’s office know about “the quality of the conservation and energy efficiency work carried out by Holy Wisdom Monastery.”

The tour ended at the top of “God’s Hill” with spectacular views of Lake Mendota, the city of Madison and the Capitol.

08/26/2026

“I landed in Wisconsin for the first time in the dog days of summer, sultry and humid and reverberant with sound. The very air was singing like the sea, great cyclical surges that emerged out of the trees, rose, peaked, and faded in a hypnotic pattern that resembled the long, slow inhale-hold-exhale-hold of meditation, the deep calm when the mind quiets and consciousness floats on the swells of breath. ”

– Catherine Jagoe, "Cicadas," Praying to the God of Small Things