ITEM FILE PHOTO
The entrance to the old Marian Court College, which could soon become a monastery.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — The Rev. Andrew Bushell wants to turn the former Marian Court College, also known as White Court, into a monastery.
Bushell, a Marblehead native, is executive chairman of St. Paul’s Foundation, a monastic institution of the monks of Mount Athos in Greece, a church, not a nonprofit. Its foundational documents are the letters of St. Paul the Apostle to the various churches of the world, he said.
“Should we decide to complete the purchase of the Marian Court property, I would also be the superior of the new monastic community dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation, which is one of the holy names of the mother of God and perhaps the most famous miracle working icon on Mount Athos.
“I also spent seventh grade in Swampscott, so to some degree this is a homecoming and I am very happy to do something nice for the town and the area,” he said in an email confirming his intended use.
Marian Court College, located at 35 Littles Point Road, closed in June 2015 because of financial difficulties. The current owners, the Sisters of Mercy, who purchased the property in 1954, held a public forum in Swampscott in October 2015, where several ideas were presented for potential reuse of the property, which they intend to sell. White Court was built in 1859.
ALSO: Lynn board can’t zone in on housing conclusion
Alice Poltorick, spokeswoman for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Northeast Community, said there is an offer on the property.
“There is an agreement in place,” she said. “We hope to sell the property as soon as we can.”
When he returned to Marblehead five years ago, Bushell said the Marblehead Salt Company was founded, and provides for the group’s basic needs, and allows them to donate to the community and world. The funds are sufficient for a small house, he said, but the White Court property is larger and more expensive to maintain, in addition to the group’s mission to help its Middle Eastern brothers.
Bushell said to yield more profits, the plan is to build a small monastic brewery and cider house inside what is now the Mercy Center and a warehouse in Lynn or Revere, which will be used for storage and larger deliveries.
Interim Town Administrator Gino Cresta said Bushell will appear before the Board of Selectmen at their meeting next Wednesday to present his plan.
“What he’s looking for is town support on his proposal,” Cresta said of Bushell. “What he’s looking to do is see how much support he has for his proposal before he makes the final payment on the property.”
Naomi Dreeben, chairwoman of the board of selectmen, said she’s looking forward to what Bushell has to say next week.
“He wants to come to the board and tell us about what his plans are and I think he would very much like to know the town is behind his plan,” she said. “It’s a very large waterfront property. We have an interest in how it’s being used.”
Dreeben said she and other town officials were interested in a possible boutique hotel option at the former college site, one of the options presented by the Sisters of Mercy at their public forum last year.
She said a hotel would allow public access and the property would be preserved. There is no other hotel in Swampscott. A for-profit hotel, she said, would provide financial benefit to the town.
“It seemed like a win-win kind of purpose,” Dreeben said.
Bushell said he was tasked in January to find a suitable location in the United States where St. Paul’s could create a monastic environment to train young monks in “personal holiness, generosity of spirit, love, forbearance and patience to return to our native communities and participate in the rebuilding.”
“But I am not a real estate developer,” he said. “I am not a businessman. I am a monk. And additionally, all monks of the holy mountain (Mount Athos) have a special devotion to the mother of God. She is the ephor (overseer) of the holy mountain.
“And then, in March, a friend of ours mentioned Marian Court. Even though I grew up in the area as a child, I never really knew anything about it,” he continued. “And I called Sister Marie Kieslich of the Sisters of Mercy and discovered that the property was dedicated to the Virgin. It seemed like a sign.”
The monastic community at White Court, should the purchase be completed, would have no more than 18 full-time residents, according to Bushell.
“We have already started to use the property as a place of prayer, reflection, sanctuary, repentance and celebration of the divine services, which is the point of a monastic enclosure,” Bushell said. “These practices will continue and increase as we receive positive affirmation throughout our discernment process and as we move through the renovation process, which we expect will take many years.
“After we take possession of the property, we will begin work on a substantial number of repairs. First, we will repurpose a room for a small chapel so that we can better celebrate the divine services. Second, we will set up a workshop.”
Monastic life is about quality, Bushell said. Monks live off the work of their own hands, living lives of evangelical poverty, obedience, chastity and stability, conforming their lives to the gospels. A monastic cycle of services and prayer is kept, interpreted according to the individual monastic house, he added.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
