The Spirit of Monastic Hospitality

In the spirit of monastic hospitality, we welcome you to Saint Bede Center. The Center offers a wide variety of retreat opportunities, including facilities for ecumenical retreat, workshops, seminars, meetings, and private reflection or study.

The Saint Bede Center, located in the wooded countryside of Central Wisconsin, just beyond the city limits of Eau Claire, is one of the most peaceful places imaginable for a meeting, workshop, seminar, or retreat.

A variety of sizes and types of meeting rooms are available:

From a cozy lounge with fireplace, to modern, efficient, larger and smaller rooms, Saint Bede has the facilities to accommodate your group.

	Meeting room capacity for 150
	Food service capacity for 100 (refreshments/coffee, light snack, full meal)
	Overnight accommodations for 30

In addition to group hosting, Saint Bede Center warmly welcomes private individuals or groups who wish to make arrangements for spiritual direction, private retreats, or staff-directed retreats. Contact the Saint Bede Center to make arrangements with a staff member for spiritual direction.

For more information about Saint Bede Center, its programs and scheduled activities, contact Sister Judith Kramer, OSB, Director, at (715) 834-8642.

Saint Bede Center welcomes guests of many faiths

A retreat and conference facility since the late 1970s, the Center has various-sized, well-equipped meeting rooms to accommodate the needs of individuals and groups. Modern and comfortable, the Center offers peaceful spaces for those seeking an atmosphere for spiritual activities, personal reflection, study and creative pursuits.

The Center’s ten meeting rooms are each named for a site or person linked to centuries-old Benedictine tradition. Caldey, for example, harks to the Celtic monks in 6th century England; Caedmon, the Center’s largest meeting room, is named for an illiterate monk of Whitby Abbey who sang of God’s creation and expressed the Scriptures in poetry.

Fireside Lounge, with its cozy hearth, is another popular gathering spot for seminars, entertainment and relaxation.

The Center’s library attracts guests, scholars, writers and book groups. Here visitors can browse books on spiritual subjects, Biblical and related reference works, biographies, novels and an updated collection of periodicals.

Meeting guests can take refreshments in the café adjacent to Benet, air-conditioned and newly recarpeted, and popular site for summer meetings and conferences.

Or arrange to dine in the Monastery’s Dining Room.

Simple, comfortable guest rooms on each of the Center’s main and second floors, can accommodate up to 30 overnight guests.

In any season, the Saint Bede grounds are a beautiful combination of woods, fields and well-marked hiking trails. Outside the Center’s windows or during a stroll outside, expect to see deer, wild turkeys, and many other animals and birds.

The fall color at Saint Bede is spectacular.

Each year more than 9,500 visitors of all faiths enjoy the facilities at the Center. In a busy, complex world, this center is an oasis of calm, graciousness and hospitality close to the city but distant from daily pressures. Find us easily south of Eau Claire on Priory Road. Look for our sign on the hilltop. You’re always welcome!

Comments from visitors to Saint Bede Center

"For several years the Benedictine community at Saint Bede Center has hosted our monthly class days for the Eau Claire site of the Diocesan School of Biblical Studies. Any season of the year you can count on some essential things with the Sisters and the Center: A generous and warm welcome, clean and attractive programming spaces, a staff aching to please, healthy and nourishing meals, in a peaceful setting where the Word of God is honored. Such dependable hospitality is a rare and precious thing."
~ Rev. Mark Pierce, Pastor, Newman Parish, La Crosse, Wisconsin

"It's hard to explain, but in a perfectly strange place, I felt at home...To be welcomed in such an inviting way...was the most profound expression of hospitality I have ever experienced... I truly felt that God met me at Saint Bede's..."
~ Anonymous

"It is always a joy to come here. Thank you for making it home."
~ Anonymous

"Many and continued blessings to you and your ministry."
~ Anonymous

"I loved coming to St. Bede's! It was beautiful and I appreciated your friendly spirit-filled hospitality."
~ Anonymous

"Your hospitality is such a gift to us."
~ Anonymous