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By Lloyd Mackey
SHE has led a rich and varied life, as a business person, medical technologist,
teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and, for close to four
decades, a Benedictine nun.
In her eighth decade, she wrote about it all.
Sister Jill, whose ‘lay’ name is Jill Aigner, spent some two decades on Vancouver Island, during which
time she developed two retreat houses in the Nanaimo area.
She is part of the Benedictine sector of the Oblates and, at 86, is still
leading an active life – which has been chronicled in a book she began writing when she turned 80.
She grew up as a nominal Protestant, and part of the extended family sired by
novelist Jack London.
Converting to Catholicism in her late teens, she married a Catholic college
professor. They adopted two children. The marriage did not last and, in the
process, Aigner became Sister Jill.
She was the first married woman to become a Benedictine.
Her marriage had not ended at the time she entered the order, but she had been
separated for some time from her husband. A special papal dispensation paved
the way for her to join the order.
The move into sisterhood was inspired by her sense of God nudging her along. To
that point, she had experienced conflicts and family abuse. All of this, in
many ways, prepared her for the long-time role of providing spiritual direction
and arranging places of retreat for people who needed Christian renewal,
insight and encouragement.
“I loved my 25 years in British Columbia,” she recalls. Her major project was the development of Bethlehem Retreat Centre.
Stanford-educated, Sister Jill transitioned to the House of Bread Monastery in
Nanaimo, through the aegis of the ‘mother house,’ Queen of Angels Monastery in Mt. Angel, Oregon.
The retreat houses she established at Bethlehem Retreat Centre, and worked in
for 17 years, are now part of House of Bread.
As she advanced in age, she had a further epiphany, which led her to the
decision to commit her life’s journey to a book. The end result was A Stranger in my Skin: An Unconventional Path to God (Monastery Press, 2007).
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Writing about her book in the Times-Colonist, religion journalist Ian Dutton observed: “The prelude (to Stranger) included 80 years of turmoil, of abrupt changes in her life’s direction, including the ones that many of us face: marriage, children and
marital discord. But unlike the rest of us, it also included joining a
religious order.”
He quotes Aigner as suggesting the book has been cathartic.
“It’s been helpful to a lot of people who’ve never heard of me, and some who thought they knew me. My daughter never
understood my life, and after she read the book (it took me a little while to
show it to her because she’s a Mormon missionary) she said that I’d done a good job in not being judgmental in some of the rough times we’ve had – ones that every family has, I think.”
Sister Jill moved back to Mt. Angel in her early 80s because of a more suitable
climate – and easier access to some vineyards, where she still has family business
interests.
She still drives and takes long walks. “It is amazing how far you can go with a good walker,” she enthused.
She concludes her interview quite simply, with the suggestion that her life
demonstrates that “with the Lord’s direction, there are many ways to serve.”
July 2009
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