The Dominican Sisters of Peace Leadership Team announced their Motherhouse in Great Bend will close by the end of 2026. The 20 sisters who live at the Motherhouse at 3600 Broadway Ave. will move to other community houses or care centers in St. Catharine, Ky., and Columbus, Ohio.
“Our Great Bend Sisters have an inspiring history of service in education and health care that began in 1902 and now extends across the US and as far as Nigeria,” said Sr. Pat Twohill, OP, Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of Peace. “The Sisters have known for some time that the property is significantly larger than our needs, and that we would have to come to a decision about the future of the Motherhouse. After serious consultation with the Sisters in Great Bend, we knew the time had come to close the property.”
The Motherhouse’s staff members will remain in place as long as needed, with severance as their service ends.
Heartland Center for Spirituality, located within the Motherhouse, will continue to offer its retreats, programs, and hosted events until the end of the year. The Center was originally founded in 1985 to aid in the spiritual formation of adults and to animate peace and justice issues. Over the years, the Heartland Center for Spirituality has become a popular retreat space for Catholics and other Christian groups as well as a center for both in-person and virtual spirituality programming.
Cedar Park Place, an adjacent senior living facility founded by the Congregation more than 40 years ago, will remain in operation, as will Heartland Farm in Pawnee Rock.
Cedar Park Place was a long-standing dream of the community, which was dedicated to creative ministry to the elderly and solidarity with the economic poor. Today, Cedar Park Place is home to 63 low-income seniors in Great Bend.
Heartland Farm opened in 1987 with two Sisters, Roserita Weber, OP, and Imelda Schmidt, OP. Today, Heartland Farm is an 83-acre farm practicing regenerative agriculture to raise a herd of alpacas, (harvested for wool), chickens and vegetables. The Farm hosts retreats, youth camps, and classes on sustainable farming, cooking, and fiber arts. It is also an agritourism operator under the Kansas Agritourism Promotion Act of 2004.
“This is not the end of a Dominican presence in Kansas,”Sister Pat stated in a news release. “Our service to Great Bend’s elderly will continue at Cedar Park Place, and our commitment to care of Earth remains strong at Heartland Farm. Our hearts and prayers will continue to be with our dear friends on the Plains.”
The Broadway location was the second Motherhouse for the Congregation. Led by Sr. Antonina Fischer, the Dominican Sisters came to Great Bend to build schools. In true Dominican fashion, the Sisters recognized and responded to the city’s needs by opening not just a school, but a hospital in Great Bend. By the time the Congregation in Great Bend celebrated its 50-year Jubilee in 1952, the sisters staffed schools in four states as well as four hospitals. The hospitals in Kansas were founding facilities of CommonSpirit Health, America’s third-largest health system.
In 1956, the Kansas Sisters embarked on missionary work in northern Nigeria, engaging in evangelization, health care, education, and various other works. Witnessing the Sisters’ lives of service, Nigerian women answered God’s call to join Dominican life. In the years since, the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena of Gusau, Nigeria, has become 100% indigenous and self-governing, but the Kansas Sisters have continued their support through years of holiday bazaars, and currently a year-round gift shop and an annual raffle.
The current Motherhouse at 3600 Broadway was built in 1941. The Dominican Sisters of Great Bend became the Dominican Sisters of Peace as part of a union finalized on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009.
The Congregation will be exploring options for the future use of the Motherhouse buildings and campus. Plans for closing blessings and celebrations are also being organized.
