The S.H.O.P. headquarters will house a library but much more besides: it aims to be a place that Dominican women from all branches of the Order and from around the world can call their own, where they can reflect on their history and their identity, collective and individual. There are three study bedrooms, providing the opportunity for sabbaticals, research and repose. The library hopes to establish a unique collection of the histories of Dominican monasteries, congregations, secular institutes, lay fraternities, biographies of Dominican women in all languages as well as iconographical material.

Barbara Beaumont, OP

Situated only 2.5 km from Prouilhe, attendance at daily liturgies at the monastery is possible. A balcony overlooking the small market square establishes a link with the life of the village where St Dominic lived and preached.

This project began in 2002, when the Master of the Order called for the creation of an international community at Prouilhe. His vision included the hope that the entire Prouilhe-Fanjeaux site would be viewed as a home for ongoing spiriituality and history of the Order. SHOP is the first embryonic fruit of that larger vision.

SHOP's director is Sr. Barbara Beaumont, OP, a Domincan nun from Belgium who has been granted permission to move the project forward. A scholar of comparative 19th Century literature, Barbara completed a doctorate with Guy Bedouelle, OP, at Fribourg, Switzerland. Her thesis was on how French nuns survived the French Revolution and restored their communities "long before the friars picked themselves up off the ground," in Barbara's words. Her work was published by the Angelicum, Rome in 2002. Barbara also serves as assistant editor of Mémoire Dominicaine the French Dominican history journal

A new website is getting underway and a newsletter is being published.

Anne Lythgoe, OP
editor
Source: S.H.O.P. newsletter