Mother Katherine
Wool Products
Mother Katherine, the Shepard at Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, comes from rural western Maine. Her father's family were cattlemen for generations and her mother's French Canadian forebears were fiber artists and needle women.
Her background is wide and varied, having at some time picked potatoes in northern Maine, been a substitute postmaster, a nurse in nearly every institutional setting (an experience eminently suitable for caring for a flock). She parlayed an aptitude for music into learning the French horn and playing in community bands, Little Theater pits, Nutcracker ballets and symphony orchestras in Maine.
She came to New York in 2001 to join the monastery and her first "obedience" was to carry buckets of water to the stock. She often jokes her name is Gunga Din! Genetic influences, spiritual intuition, intense reading and working with area farmers as well as Cornell and the NCRS have helped shape her philosophies in stock, land care and management. She "intends" to see life forms as a continuum and work with the animals bringing about a manifestation of the kingdom of God among us.
The monastery had the idea of fiber work being a viable way of sustaining the animals and creating an atmosphere in which prayer would grow. Mother Katherine has learned to shear sheep, spin wool and weave articles. She has studied with a Swedish master weaver, a Cobleskill teacher Sharon Kruppenbacher and with a local fiber teacher Dawn Helstrom.
She a member of Leatherstocking Shepherds Association and the Butternuts Spinners Guild, she brings Romney the sheep to the fiber festival in Rhinebeck yearly during October.
www.holymyrrhbearers.com
Her background is wide and varied, having at some time picked potatoes in northern Maine, been a substitute postmaster, a nurse in nearly every institutional setting (an experience eminently suitable for caring for a flock). She parlayed an aptitude for music into learning the French horn and playing in community bands, Little Theater pits, Nutcracker ballets and symphony orchestras in Maine.
She came to New York in 2001 to join the monastery and her first "obedience" was to carry buckets of water to the stock. She often jokes her name is Gunga Din! Genetic influences, spiritual intuition, intense reading and working with area farmers as well as Cornell and the NCRS have helped shape her philosophies in stock, land care and management. She "intends" to see life forms as a continuum and work with the animals bringing about a manifestation of the kingdom of God among us.
The monastery had the idea of fiber work being a viable way of sustaining the animals and creating an atmosphere in which prayer would grow. Mother Katherine has learned to shear sheep, spin wool and weave articles. She has studied with a Swedish master weaver, a Cobleskill teacher Sharon Kruppenbacher and with a local fiber teacher Dawn Helstrom.
She a member of Leatherstocking Shepherds Association and the Butternuts Spinners Guild, she brings Romney the sheep to the fiber festival in Rhinebeck yearly during October.
www.holymyrrhbearers.com