St. Anne’s Retirement Community
Since 1928, St. Anne’s Retirement Community, a Catholic based retirement community for senior living in southcentral Pennsylvania, has served the community with compassionate services. We look forward to providing our Residents with quality, integrated care for many years in the future. If you’re looking for a continuing care retirement community, we hope you’ll consider dropping by our beautiful Lancaster County, PA campus for a visit!
St. Anne’s Retirement Community is a financially independent non-profit corporation sponsored by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ.
Publications
Our Heart to Heart newsletter is published twice per year and the Community Benefits is published yearly. If you would like to receive a copy of either or both of these publications, please contact the Giving and Marketing Department.
St. Anne’s History and Heritage
Humble Beginnings
In 1925, a small group of Croatian/German nuns—members of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ—left their convent in Illinois to establish a new motherhouse in Central Pennsylvania. They were guided by the mission and vision of their foundress, St. Maria De Mattias, who urged her Sisters to always trust in God’s providence while showing love and compassion for “the dear neighbor.”
Led by Mother Paulina Schneeburger, the pilgrim Adorers settled on a 125-acre working farm outside of Columbia, PA, which was formerly owned by a Senator from Lancaster named Robert Quay. The Sisters moved into the rambling old 22-room mansion on the property and converted it into a convent. Though the Sisters barely had any money, their simplicity and hard work endeared them to the local community — they could often be seen working in the fields and tending dairy cows in their long habits besides hired farmhands.
It wasn’t long before the Sisters’ new life in Pennsylvania began to change. They became caretakers for two elderly men, and following their call to serve Christ and others, welcomed more guests to the convent. In order to accommodate these new guests, a large annex was built behind the convent, renovations to a nearby tenant farmhouse were made, and in August, 1928, St. Anne’s officially opened its doors to 24 elderly residents.
