ST. CLOUD - A 105-year-old bell has been restored and is ready to ring again.

The massive 1,200 pound cast bronze bell was created in 1906 for the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict.  The bell was used to call the Sisters to prayer three times a day, at the site of the former St. Rafael's Hospital. The hospital closed in 1899, because a promised bridge from St. Cloud across the Mississippi River was never built, and residents couldn't get to the hospital.  But the building continued to be used by the Sisters, and the bell was added seven years later.

Major building renovations silenced the bell in 2000.

However, recently two donors, Donald and Marion Hall of Minneapolis, offered to fund a new bell tower.  The bell was shipped to Cincinnati this summer for restoration.

You are invited to a public blessing and ringing of the restored bell and new bell tower at Saint Scholastica Convent tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3:00 p.m.

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