St. Rose of Viterbo Convent

St. Rose of Viterbo Convent is the motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, an American religious congregation, which is located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The convent is dedicated to Rose of Viterbo, a 13th-century Franciscan tertiary who was a noted mystic and street preacher in Italy who died while still a teenager.The convent contains three chapels, of which one, Mary of the Angels Chapel, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places of the United States. Another, the Adoration Chapel, is the site of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which has been an uninterrupted practice of the Sisters since August 1, 1878.HistoryThe central portion of the convent was built in 1871, when the Sisters moved their motherhouse from Jefferson, Wisconsin, at the invitation of Michael Heiss, Bishop of the newly established Diocese of La Crosse.The convent was initially built both as the administrative center of the congregation and also as a secondary school for girls. With the growing numbers of members of the congregation and of the student body, two wings were added to the initial building which were completed in 1914. The original building was gutted by fire in 1923 and had to be rebuilt, which took two years.