Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, are a Roman Catholic religious order, in Gower, Missouri in the United States. The nuns sing together, as part of their daily life of prayer. The group have released a number of recordings of their songs. Both their first two albums of their recorded chants and hymns reached number 1 on the classical traditional Billboard charts in 2013. They were named Billboard's Classical Traditional Artist 2012 and 2013, the first order of nuns to win an award in the history of Billboard magazine. Album sales are used to improve the monastery and pay off the abbey's debt. The music is arranged by the abbess Mother Cecilia.
The community attends Mass in the extraordinary form (Traditional Latin Mass) and prays the 1962 Monastic Breviary.
History.
The community was established in 1995 as a small order of Benedictine nuns under the auspices of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They were originally called the Oblates of Mary, Queen of Apostles. They began following a monastic horarium defined in the Rule of Saint Benedict, and chanting the Divine Office in Latin according to the 1962 "Breviarium Monasticum".
Upon his arrival in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph in 2005, Bishop Robert Finn said that vocations to the priesthood and religious life would be seen as a "super-priority" for his diocese. In March 2006, Finn invited the order to his diocese. The nuns relocated to Gower, Missouri and were established as a public association of the faithful with the new name "Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles".
In September 2018, its priory was raised to abbey and their new Abbey Church was consecrated by Bishop Robert Finn. Mother Cecilia was the first abbess to received the Abbatial Blessing according to the traditional Pontificale in the United States.
Recordings.
The nuns sing together daily, typically for five hours per day, as part of their daily life of prayer. The group have released a number of recordings of their songs. Their debut recording "Advent At Ephesus", released at the end of 2012, reached number 2 on Billboard's Classical Traditional Music Chart and number 14 on the Classical Music Overall Chart. They were named Billboard's Classical Traditional Artist 2012 and 2013, the first order of nuns to win an award in the history of Billboard magazine.
Both their first two albums of their recorded chants and hymns reached number 1 on the classical traditional Billboard charts in 2013. As of 9 August 2013, the group's second album "Angels and Saints at Ephesus" reached the number 1 position on the Billboard traditional classical albums chart for 13 weeks, a record duration on that chart since 2006. As of July 2013, the album also reached number 3 on Billboard's Bestselling Internet Album Chart, number 7 on its Contemporary Christian and Christian Gospel charts, and number 127 on the ""Billboard" 200" weekly ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States. The album has sold 49,000 copies in the United States as of February 2015.
Album sales are used to improve the monastery and pay off the abbey's debt. The music is arranged by the abbess Mother Cecilia.