MYSTIC, Conn. — While many visitors come to this seaside resort town to visit Mystic Seaport, or to enjoy roadside seafood eateries, others come to refresh their souls and witness the beauty of God’s creation on Enders Island.
The 11-acre island is located in Fisher’s Island Sound at the mouth of the Mystic River, and provides an escape from the fast pace of today’s world. Enders Island is home to St. Edmund’s Retreat, which is a private Catholic organization operated by a board of trustees and is not affiliated with any diocese or religious order.
Jeff Anderson, director of St. Edmund’s, said the organization’s mission is to “proclaim the word and deed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the light of the Catholic faith.”
Enders Island’s grounds are filled with colorful flowers, religious statues, a chapel built in 2003, a mansion, meeting rooms and guest houses.
The seaside oasis hosts retreats, days of reflection, art classes and recovery weekends for 12-step programs. A group of families gathered last month to enjoy Enders Island’s beauty during a five-day retreat.
The families gathered for 9 a.m. Mass in the main chapel, which is adorned with several beautiful religious paintings.
The chapel’s Stations of the Cross contains 15 stations. The 15th station represents the resurrected Christ, said Anderson.
Anderson said views of the island are incorporated into the stations’ paintings, and the series begins in the spring and ends in the wintertime.
“This chapel was built on the water and Christ is on the water,” Anderson emphasized. An impressive feature of the intimate chapel is the prayer room, which contains an arm of St. Edmund encased under glass. St. Edmund Rich was the Archbishop of Canterbury, England and spent parts of his life in Oxford, England and Paris. He preached during the Crusades and died in 1240 and is buried in Pontigny, France.
Anderson said numerous miracles are attributed to St. Edmund and his body is incorrupt.
Dr. Andre Lijoi and Andrea Lombard said they have brought their families on retreats to Enders Island for the past eight summers.
“Every day during the retreat there is a theme such as communication and forgiveness and there is daily Mass and rosary and activities for the kids,” said Lijoi, of York, Pa., who brought his wife Laurie and two children to Enders Island.
Lombard, of Windsor, Conn., brought her two children to the family retreat as well, and said she is a single parent and feels welcomed by the St. Edmund’s staff. “All families are accepted here and the staff is supportive. We don’t have to make meals and we have a quiet time,” said Lombard.
The retreat center’s setting offers views of Fisher’s Island, which belongs to New York; the beaches of Watch Hill, Rhode Island; and Noank, Conn.
The gardens of Enders Island spring to life in the summertime with hundreds of bright flowers and plants, and offers several quiet places for prayer and reflection. Anderson said staff and volunteers at St. Edmund’s grow blueberries, apples, peaches, pears and currants.
Anderson said the staff bakes cookies and puts out fruit for people on retreats every night. “The staff here is welcoming and everyone who works here understands the mission. The housekeeper and the cook are just as important as my job,” said Anderson.
Enders Island is open year-round for retreats, and Anderson said St. Edmund’s sponsors about 100 retreats a year. He said more than 16,000 people travel over the causeway, which connects Mystic to Enders Island per year.
“We are welcoming to all, and all are welcome in light of the Catholic faith,” said Anderson. He said St. Edmund’s Retreat offers recovery weekends, week-long retreats and sacred art courses. “to preserve and promote traditional art in the church.”
Mass is celebrated seven days a week and guests receive three meals per day. St. Edmund‘s has three priests in residence and a full-time volunteer who resides on the island, said Anderson.
The Edmundites, an order of priests and brothers who foster spiritual renewal, evangelization and social justice, held the island until 2003 when it became independent.
Stained-glass class fires up artists’ faith
MYSTIC, Conn. — Contemplating images of sacredness in a room with an expansive view of Fishers Island Sound provides the perfect setting to create stained-glass windows and other forms of Christian-inspired artwork at St. Edmund's Retreat. St. Michael's Institute of Sacred Art offers an opportunity for visitors to hone their artistic skills in a relaxed, prayerful environment.
The Institute offers courses year-round in iconography, manuscript illumination, marble mosaics, calligraphy and stained glass.
Nicholas Parrendo, the owner of Hunt Stained Glass Studios in Pittsburgh, shares his expertise and faith each year to help students create windows that glorify the beauty of God's creation.
Students Beverly Kipphan, of Hedgesville, W.Va., and Frances Cantone, of Warwick, N.Y., were busy tracing designs, cutting glass, painting their creations and finishing their works in a kiln under Parrendo's guidance during a week-long course offered last month.
Kipphan and Cantone said Enders Island and Parrendo's watchful eye have inspired them to strive toward living their faith through art. "Nick is a treasure and he is gifted and patient, and it is wonderful to build art to venerate God. This has been a spiritual retreat and we attend Mass every day, and I have a product to bring home, which illuminates my world," said Kipphan, who said she plans to decorate a chapel she is building on her property in West Virginia with stained glass.
"I think this course helps me stay in touch with people's ideas, and my job is to come hear and teach. We are surrounded by water and it is peaceful here," said Parrendo, as the Army veteran helped the students.
"The surroundings here are beautiful. When you look at Nick's stained glass you see his faith, and his art has feeling," said Cantone, who displayed the skill of scoring transparent glass with a razor dipped in cutting oil amid a kiln that can be fired as high as 1,200-degrees Fahrenheit that is used to fire the painted glass. The kiln permanently adheres the paint to the glass, according to Hunt Stained Glass Studios.
Parrendo displayed postcards he produced with images of St. Francis Xavier, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, and said his Catholic faith inspires his artwork.
For information on St. Michael's Institute of Sacred Art at St. Edmund's visit the Web site www.endersisland.com or call (860) 536-0565.
- Eric Adams
