Benedictines Of Mary, Queen Of Apostles On CBS Morning News

“CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD” VISITS THE BILLBOARD CHART-TOPPING BENEDICTINES OF MARY, QUEEN OF APOSTLES

 CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD goes behind-the-scenes with the Billboard chart-topping Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, to report on how a group of nuns in Missouri have become rock stars in the classical music world.

The sisters only speak for one hour a day, but they sing for five, says Tracy Smith in a report to be broadcast April 20, 2014 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. It’s the first time TV news cameras have been allowed inside the sisters’ home.

“This music is our life,” choir director Mother Cecilia Snell tells Smith. “So I think people hear that, and it inspires them. It inspires them in their own lives again, reminds them there’s something more to this life than I see with my eyes. Because beauty touches the soul and the heart, and it reminds people, I have a soul, I have a heart.”

The sisters live in a home in Gower, Mo., which they built in 2010 and put them $2 million in debt. To pay the bills, the sisters make and sell priestly vestments and linen. Early on they also sold CDs of their hymns, but that wasn’t enough to cover the loan payments. But then a record producer heard their music. The producer visited the sisters in the midst of their praying for ways to get out of debt.

“That’s how God works,” Mother Cecilia tells Smith. “We didn’t expect it to come from that direction, but there it was.

The record company helped with production and distribution and also turned the chapel into a recording studio. Three albums in and the sisters have almost paid off their debt, Mother Cecilia says. “We just need to sell a few more CDs,” she says. “Just a little bit. Under, well, about $100,000, so we’re almost there.”

There are 23 sisters, most of them in their 20s and 30s. They live a strict monastic life, where they work six hours at manual labor, they go to church, and they only experience life outside of their home to visit a doctor.

“When we do go out in the world, it’s – it’s shocking,” Mother Cecilia says. “I mean, it’s literally, our senses are overloaded. Even just going to the doctors because you know, there’s TVs in there now, and it’s just a lot of noise. It’s constant stimulation.”

They were named Billboard’s Classical Artists of the year in 2012 and 2013, but the sisters are not affected by the success of their CDs, Mother Cecilia says. “We don’t care about the charts,” she says. “We don’t – we don’t care about popularity. We care about souls.”

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.