TO REVITALIZE:  St. Ignatius Retreat House

St. Ignatius Retreat House became the principal Retreat House for the District of the United States when St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary moved to Minnesota in 1988. The Retreat House specializes in one-week Spiritual Exercises according to the method of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a method dictated to him directly by the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Exercises were considered a very important apostolate of the SSPX by founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Retreats are offered separately for men and women throughout the year and offer periods of quiet peace, prayer and reflection which are vital for a profound Catholic life.  Our waterfront location is ideal for a secluded, peaceful and profitable retreat. 

Thousands of priests, seminarians, laity and students have attended retreats and passed through our halls.  St. Ignatius Retreat House has served retreatants not only from the Northeast but from nearly every state in the U.S. and from around the world.  Many are those, especially in these times of turmoil, who have richly benefited from the silence and recollection afforded by this beautiful property to rediscover the beauties of the Catholic faith and to reestablish a strong spiritual life.   

The Retreat House is home to 7 priests and 3 brothers. The priests who reside here minister to eight chapels in the Northeast offering Mass, preaching recollections and parish missions, visiting the sick, teaching catechism and tending to the faithful and school children.  In addition to Christ the King, priests from Ridgefield travel each week to St. Lawrence in South Windsor, CT (Hartford); St. Michael in Farmingville, Long Island, NY; St. Christopher’s Mission in Manhattan, NY; St. Anthony of Padua in North Caldwell, NJ; St. Jude’s in Eddystone, PA; St. Catherine’s in Boston, MA and Immaculate Conception in Gilford, NH.

Retreat House - $ 750,000

Anyone who has made a recent retreat at St. Ignatius is well acquainted with the 59 drafty windows and their increasingly dilapidated inadequacy.  Major structural and exterior work includes window and gutter replacement, repair to the stucco facade, masonry and chimney repairs, roofing, and replacement of the walkway on the south side.  The cupola housing the priory bell (a blessed sacramental) is also in need of repairs.  Interiorly, the chapel requires ceiling and air conditioning replacement, while the house requires bathroom renovations and painting throughout.  Upgraded technology is also required, including installation of a new house bell system and phone system.