The Monastic Congregation consists of 12 member monasteries and two affiliated ecumenical monasteries of Benedictine women in Canada and the United States.
The Benedictine Monastic Congregation of St. Gertrude was established by the Apostolic See on April 14, 1937, when tentative approval was granted to the three founding monasteries of Sacred Heart, Yankton, South Dakota; Mount St. Benedict, Crookston, Minnesota; and Sacred Heart, Richardton, North Dakota, to found the Congregation of St. Gertrude the Great. On April 4, 1950, definitive approval was received. Though originally composed of monasteries of the Upper Midwest, the Federation now has 12 member monasteries and two affiliated ecumenical monasteries, located from the Appalachians to the West Coast and from Arkansas to British Columbia.