The original monastery was founded in 1874 by a group of five sisters led by Sister Mary Anselma Felber, O.S.B., who came from the young monastery of Maria-Rickenbach (founded 1857) in Switzerland. Arriving in Clyde, Missouri, they founded the Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration. This remains the motherhouse and largest community of the congregation. It houses 550 documented relics of the saints. The decision to come was sparked by the departure of a group of monks from the nearby Engelberg Abbey, at a time when monastic communities felt threatened by political changes taking place throughout Europe. As with many other monastic groups, they looked to the New World for a place of refuge. The monks went on to found Conception Abbey in nearby Conception, Missouri, and began to minister to German and Irish immigrants of the region. It is a tradition that the Benedictine Sisters join the monks for evening prayer and supper each year on Easter Monday; the monks, in turn, join the Sisters on the feast of St. Scholastica.