Pallottine Retreat Center near Florissant experienced roof, tree damage during tornado in March
Women from All Saints Parish on an ACTS retreat at Pallottine Retreat &Conference Center were just lining up for confession when the outdoor warning sirens wailed.
Retreat directress Deanna Carlsen was prepared with a plan.
She had been watching the weather all week, with meteorologists predicting an outbreak of severe weather — and likely tornadoes — on March 14, the second night of the retreat.
With winds picking up throughout the afternoon, Carlsen reassured retreatants that they’d have a safe place to weather the storms in an old bomb shelter-turned-storage area in the basement of Pallottine’s main building. Two overnight staff assistants were on site to help if needed.
Carlsen also called on the Blessed Mother’s intercession, turning to an old tradition she had read about and used to pray for favorable weather on her wedding day in February 2019.
“There’s an old custom that you put a statue of the Blessed Mother in the window facing outward and pray as she watches for good weather,” she said. A small figure of Mary was placed in one of the windows of the conference room where the women were meeting, and they prayed for Mary’s intercession as they went on with their retreat.
Pallottine, located near Florissant, not far from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, ended up right in the pathway of a EF-2 tornado that started near Chesterfield and traveled northeast through St. Louis and St. Charles counties for more than 30 miles, dissipating around Alton, Illinois.
When the women emerged from their shelter after the storm had passed, they saw extensive tree and roof damage scattered throughout the 83-acre property. Thankfully, no one was injured.
“We felt like the Blessed Mother had wrapped her arms and her whole mantle around us,” Carlsen said. “There wasn’t a single pane of glass broken.”
Numerous large trees were downed, including along the main driveway and a meditation area at the entrance of the campus. A cross at the center of the meditation area remained standing. Several men from the maintenance crew arrived that night to clear debris from the roadway.
A 30-inch long tree limb also pierced the roof in several places at Nazareth House, one of two furnished houses on campus that host smaller groups for private retreats. No one was in that building at the time.
While insurance will cover some of the roof damage, the deductible is estimated at $35,000, and tree and debris removal will cost about $40,000 and is not covered by insurance, executive director Marillyn Baner said. The cost for restoration of the retreat house is still being determined.
Baner, who came out the night of the storm to be with group from All Saints, said that the community has been generous in its response. Several groups, including a national conference scheduled for the following week, had to be rescheduled due to the campus losing power for a few days.
“The whole community has been so responsive, and we’ve had people reaching out,” Baner said. “We’re one long, strong community, and if anything, this has showed us the power of God and our purpose at Pallottine.”
Pallottine opened in 1969 to serve as a novitiate and formation house for the Pallottine Missionary Sisters. With the changes that arose from the Second Vatican Council, the sisters realized that they would not have as many novices as anticipated, so they decided that the facility should serve as a retreat center for the public.
The main building was built in the shape of an angel and includes a chapel in the round, meeting rooms, guest bedrooms, gymnasium, heated indoor pool and a solarium. The campus also hosts walking trails, a low ropes course, meditation gardens and a labyrinth prayer garden.
The All Saints ACTS group had to cut short its retreat. While it wasn’t something she anticipated happening as the team spent the last year planning, Carlsen said she witnessed plenty of God moments in the experience.
As the women sheltered together in the darkness, Carlsen reflected on the theme of their retreat, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” a line from from Psalm 27.
She also noticed that the only outdoor Station of the Cross that was knocked down was the one where Jesus meets his mother on the way to Calvary.
“I thought about how the Blessed Mother’s job is to bring us to Jesus,” she said. “Here she is bringing us back to Christ in this literal darkness. It’s not what I had in my plans for the last year, but turned out the way God wanted it.”
How you can help
To donate to the ongoing recovery efforts at Pallottine Retreat & Conference Center, visit pallottinerenewal.org/rebuild/.
