While millions of us mob the malls in the marketing frenzy that has become synonymous with Christmas, some choose a quieter, more spiritual way to mark the season. For the past decade, Donald and Barbara Schumacher of Hanceville, Alabama, and their children, now ten of them aged two to twenty, have celebrated the holy part of the holidays with the Sisters of St. Birgitta in Darien. “You escape the commercialization that has, I’m afraid, made many people forget the true meaning of Christmas,” says Barbara. “At the convent, it’s like going back in time.”
Nestled in a ten-acre estate on Long Island Sound, the Vikingsborg Guest House at the Covent of St. Birgitta may be Darien’s best-kept secret. For forty-seven years it has been open all year round, welcoming people of all faiths seeking solitude, reflection, spiritual renewal or just a few days off life’s treadmill. But during the Christmas season, the guesthouse becomes the sanctuary of the faithful.
“We have tried to raise our children with very much of a Catholic culture in mind,” says Don, a pilot for Delta Airlines. “Here we can have a true and meaningful celebration of the birth of Christ.”
Sister Christina, a native of Italy, has lived in the convent since it opened in 1957 — the gift of a Baptist woman from Darien who converted to Catholicism and lived there until she died. “During Christmas,” says the eighty-five-year-old nun, “you can see the true joy on the faces of the guests.”
At first sight Vikingsborg doesn’t appear to be too different from other elegant Darien mansions that overlook the Sound — a rambling house with a widow’s walk and private dock, massive fireplaces, polished floors, antique furniture, crystal chandeliers and Oriental rugs. But aside from the religious statues that dot the grounds, there is a stillness, a muffled quality to this house that conveys an important distinction.