The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles are a community of nuns in Gower, Missouri, established in 1995. They released their debut album, Advent at Ephesus, in 2012 and it quickly rose to #2 on Billboard’s Classical Traditional Music Chart and #14 on the Classical Music Overall Chart.
Their second album, Angels and Saints at Ephesus, released a year later, held the #1 spot for 13 weeks, a record duration in the Classical Traditional Music category. The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles were named Billboard’s Classical Traditional Artist of 2012 and 2013. They are the first group of nuns to win an award in the history of Billboard magazine.
This video was shot in the current chapel of the nuns’ own Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus. The nuns typically sing together for five hours per day, as part of their daily life of prayer. With so much practice time, there’s no wonder why they have such a wonderful sound. Here they are singing “Ave Maria”, by Ravanello, which can be found on their CD entitled Marian at Ephesus.
Mother Cecilia — the young Prioress at Our Lady of Ephesus — tells Aleteia it is one of the community’s favorites, saying “We just sang it for the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun!”
All of the albums produced by these busy Benedictines can be found here.
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And today we celebrate...