The great falling asleep, a moment marked in many ways by cultures throughout history. The Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate recently celebrated its 62nd Holy Dormition Pilgrimage in Sloatsburg, NY — marking of a special passing.

The Eastern Orthodox Dormition is similiar to the Catholic Assumption celebration — same event, different manifestation of the passing of Mary — though the Dormition is a later tradition.

The hosting of the Holy Dormition Pilgrimage weekend this past August 13 and 14 was perhaps the seasonal highlight of the Sisters Servants calendar, complete with church officials and devotees taking in the festivities. It’s thought to be the largest religious gathering of Ukrainian Catholics in the US.

Currently, Mary Immaculate is also working to expand its St. Joseph’s Adult Care Home, set in woods and hills of the surrounding expansive grounds that is rich in local history.

William Pierson Hamilton (a scion of the Pierson, Hamilton and Morgan families) built the original 2000 acre estate out of the remains of the former Table Rock place, beginning around the turn of the 1900s. The English Gothic St. Mary’s Villa is the largest building, which also included St. Elizabeth’s Chapel.

The architecture and features would be nearly impossible to duplicate today, with stones quarried on-site and big wood beams cut from surrounding trees.

Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, a congregation of Byzantine Catholic sisters, purchased the Table Rock House and part of the Hamilton estate in 1941. From 1944 to 1978, Table Rock House was converted to St. Mary’s Villa Academy, a private Catholic girls’ boarding high school. Currently, Table Rock House serves as St. Mary’s Villa Retreat House, which contains the St. Mary’s Villa Spiritual and Educational Center.