History of Grailville | Loveland Magazine

On Apr 10, 2022

This is a page that will record and archive the cultural history of Grailville in Loveland, Ohio. A collection of historical documents and records from an international movement of women; who in 1940, got on a boat. The last boat before Hitler invaded Holland. They made it to America, “by an eyelash” in April of that year and settled on a farm in Loveland.

From Holland. It was wartime. WWII. The women came when they did because if not then, they didn’t know if they would ever be able to leave Europe.

They came here looking for a farm with running water, enough buildings to house 50 people and within walking distance of a railroad station. They went two-by-two visiting farms and parishes, so much so they joked they were becoming real estate agents.

Liturgy was the unifying factor of the Grail community. There was a lot of singing. It became a quiet, peace-filled beautiful space; an agricultural and religious life.

The “Year School” was a training program for young women “focused on an integrated life of work and prayer, study and fun”.

Throughout the decades, the Grailville Retreat Center brought visitors from all parts of the world to spend time in Loveland, Ohio.

At one time a truckload of goats, 400 chickens, milk cows, pigs, and canning and preserving 10,000 quarts of farm product. It was described as a rich life, however one “materially simple”.

Spiritually and intellectually very rich. Very rich in things from the ground, sky, and God in many forms.

Trina Paulus said Grailville was a “simplicity” that was ideal for her as a young woman.

Art was equal to every other thing that happened at Grailville.

Visual arts, music, and writing.

Paulus said she thought that the Dutch brought tremendous respect for the arts when they came to this country and Loveland. “It was equal to every other thing we did.”

Grailville had a weaving guild.

Listen to how the Grail women reached beyond Loveland to the world.

They were not there to hold onto what they were doing. Many of the programs that Grailville started were spun out into the world beyond Loveland.

The women launched things that were much broader than themselves.