The Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph are cloistered religious women whose midnight prayers sparked a viral, global response — and opened an unexpected window into the quiet suffering of modern mothers.
In 2023, Leanne Bowen, a Catholic artist, arrived at the priory for a self-guided retreat.
In an interaction with one of the canonesses assigned to aid her, Bowen came to understand the midnight prayer on her schedule, the traditional Matins, as a sacrificial offering for mothers. She posted about the experience on Instagram, and the story quickly went viral, triggering a flood of outreach, and the sisters’ reputation as holding a “motherhood hour.”
The Matins — prayers, hymns, psalms, and other scriptural readings incorporated into the Divine Office of the Catholic Church, and sung traditionally in the dark hours of the night leading into a new day, can be prayed in late afternoon or evening hours, but the Norbertine canonesses rise for the liturgy at midnight.
Though the prayers are lifted for “all of humanity,” according to the sisters — not specifically for mothers, as Bowen’s post implied — the providential misunderstanding struck a nerve in the hearts of mothers everywhere. Like a mother waking to tend to her child in the dark, quiet of the night, so too, these women woke, gathered, and offered prayerful sacrifice, hidden from the eyes of the world.
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