A Brief History of Mother of Sorrows Compiled by Jim Britton

Published in Contact, the Newsletter of Our Mother of Sorrows Retreat Center
West Springfield, MA, Summer 1993

Bishop O’Leary foresaw the need for a Retreat Center in his diocese of Springfield in the early 1920’s. He himself was a retreatant at the Passionist Retreat Center in Boston. In 1922 he invited the Passionists to build a Monastery and Retreat Center in the Springfield diocese. The Bishop put together a group of lay people to raise the $100,000 needed to build the facility, which opened in 1925. Here is a short chronology of some significant events.

Chronicle History of Mother of Sorrows Retreat House

• Introduction
• 1920s – 1940s
• 1950s – 1960s
• 1970s – 1990s