Thin Places - Kentucky

Thin places are places said to be different because the boundary between earth and heaven is thinner at those places.  The Sisters of Loretto live on a working farm in Marion County, Kentucky.  Father Stephen Theodore Badin provided the farm to the sisters before he moved to Indiana.  A statue of Father Badin is on the property.  He was the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. 

Tree and Birdhouse - Sisters of Loretto - Loretto Motherhouse

Serviceberry tree - Loretto Motherhouse

Yellowwood tree - Loretto Motherhouse

Fall foliage - Loretto Farm

The sisters have planted 73 acres of native grasses and 15,400 trees. The trees provide a corridor that wildlife can use to travel to adjoining habitats in the region. The Knobs region in Kentucky is named for the high places, some of them hundreds of feet high, that are scattered across the region in Marion and Woodford counties.

There is a yellowwood tree, Cladrastis Kentukea, at the Loretto Motherhouse.   For those who appreciate Kentucky the species name of this tree brings a smile to the face.  Yellowwood has a limited range in comparison to most native trees.  Its range is generally Kentucky and portions of states nearby.  The bark of Yellowwood reminds one of the smooth bark of the American beech.

A pipeline has been proposed to run across rural Kentucky including much of Marion County. The proposed pipeline would be part of a system that would transport natural gas liquids from the shale producing areas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the petrochemical market in the northeast United States, as well as the petrochemical and export complex on the Gulf Coast. Natural gas liquids can include a variety of hydrocarbons, such as ethane, propane, butane, isobutane and pentane. The sisters have refused to let surveyors for the proposed pipeline on their property.

Tom FitzGerald is head of the Kentucky Resources Council. FitzGerald has spoken of the Loretto sisters and their farm land. "It is a precious place. They are a remarkably strong community of women."

Thin places are places where the boundary between earth and heaven is a thinner boundary.