Benedictine Abbeys and Priories in the U.S.

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BENEDICTINE ABBEYS AND PRIORIES IN THE U.S.

Unlike other religious orders, the Benedictines for most of their existence have maintained a decentralized and highly autonomous structure. It was only in the last years of the nineteenth century, under the urging of Pope Leo XIII, that Benedictines began to organize themselves into a worldwide confederation of congregations. These different congregations constituted a network presided over by an abbot primate, whose role was largely to facilitate communication between individual Benedictine communities and their respective congregations. The diverse congregations that constituted the confederation were organized largely around linguistic or national lines, each with its own constitutions and customs, as well as an abbot president. Each congregation was established as autonomous in its governance, similar to the system of self-sufficiency and self-governance found in the individual monasteries.

Those Benedictine houses designated by the title "abbey" are completely independent entities, whose superior is an abbot. Those designated as priories are generally foundations of a particular abbey that still maintain some link of financial or canonical dependence on the mother house. Their superiors are called priors. The term "archabbey" is a purely honorific title, used in the United States to designate the first two monasteries of the two major United States Benedictine congregations, Saint Vincent Archabbey and Saint Meinrad Archabbey respectively.

The American Cassinese Congregation. The Benedictines came to the United States to serve the needs of the increasing tide of new German-speaking Catholic immigrants in the first half of the nineteenth century. American Catholic bishops, faced with the challenge of how to minister to this new population, sent requests for pastoral assistance to religious houses in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

These requests coincided with the emerging vision of a young Bavarian monk from the German abbey of Metten, Boniface Wimmer. Wimmer elaborated a plan to establish a permanent Benedictine community in the United States. Its main purposes were to be the sacramental care of the German-speaking Catholics and the education of immigrant children. Though he was initially discouraged from carrying out his plan by his abbot and other community members, Wimmer secured approval from Rome for the venture in 1845. In addition, he was able to receive financial aid from the Ludwig Missionsverein, a Munich immigrant aid society.

Wimmer set out for North America in 1846. With him were 18 recruits, 14 lay brothers and four candidates for the priesthood, none of whom had any prior experience in Benedictine life. On arrival, the group went to Pennsylvania. After investigating several sites, Wimmer accepted an offer to take land near Latrobe, in the diocese of Pittsburgh. The first monastic community was given the title of Saint Vincent. Within a decade of its foundation, in 1855, it was recognized by the Holy See as an abbey and Boniface Wimmer became its first abbot. Wimmer also was designated as the first president of the newly established American Cassinese Congregation. "Cassinese" was the name of a nineteenth-century Italian reform congregation, deriving its name from the abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy, founded by Saint Benedict. The American congregation came into being as a direct result of other Benedictine communities that had been founded from Saint Vincent. Saint John's Abbey in Minnesota was founded in 1856. One year later, the monastery of Saint Benedict in Atchison, Kansas, was established.

Before Wimmer's death in 1887, he was instrumental in making foundations in the cities of Newark and Chicago, which became the basis for the present abbeys of Saint Mary's (1884) and Saint Procopius (1894). Two other abbeys were founded in the American South, Belmont, North Carolina (1884) and Saint Bernard, Alabama (1891). Wimmer also started a monastic house in Savannah, Georgia, that remains today as Benedictine Priory. He also initiated foundations that later became Saint Leo Abbey, Florida (1902) and Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, Virginia (1989).

In the twentieth century the congregation continued its expansion. In addition to Saint Bede Abbey, Peru, Illinois (1910), the American Cassinese Congregation was petitioned to absorb the abbeys of Sacred Heart (now Saint Gregory), Oklahoma (1929) and Saint Mary's (now Assumption), North Dakota (1932). It extended its growth in the western United States with Holy Cross Abbey in Canon City, Colorado (1925) and Saint Martin's Abbey in Lacey, Washington (1914). Subsequent foundations of houses in the eastern United States included Saint Anselm Abbey in Manchester, New Hampshire (1927), Saint Andrew Abbey, Cleveland, Ohio (1934), the Byzantine Rite Monastery of Holy Trinity, Butler, Pennsylvania (1955) and Newark Abbey, New Jersey (1968). Monasteries founded outside the United States included Saint Peter's Abbey in Saskatchewan, Canada (1911), Tepeyac Abbey in Mexico City (1971) and Saint Anthony the Abbot Abbey in Humacao, Puerto Rico (1984). Other foreign foundations in the twentieth century include Benedicitne and Wimmer Priories in Taiwan, Holy Trinity Priory in Fujimi, Japan, Saint Augustine Priory in the Bahamas, and Saint Joseph Priory in Mineiros, Brazil.

The Swiss-American Congregation. The second major aggregate of American Benedictines is that of the Swiss-American Congregation. Their origin is associated with the monastery of Saint Meinrad in southern Indiana in 1854, a foundation of the Swiss Abbey of Einsiedeln. This house became an abbey in 1871 and an archabbey in 1954. Under the leadership of their first two abbots, Martin Marty and Fintan Mundwiller, they founded a succession of new houses. These include Subiaco Abbey in Subiaco, Arkansas (1891) and Saint Joseph Abbey in Saint Benedict, Louisiana (1903). The other major branch of the Swiss-American Congregation came from the Swiss Abbey of Engelberg. Fathers Frowin Conrad and Adelhelm Odermatt came to the United States in 1873 to found a monastery in northwest Missouri that later became Conception Abbey (1881), with Conrad as its first abbot. That same year the Swiss-American Congregation was established in a papal brief. A year later Odermatt founded a monastery in Oregon that became Mount Angel Abbey (1904). Almost a half of a century later, after World War II, another set of American houses came into being. Foundations from Saint Meinrad included Marmion Abbey, Aurora, Illinois (1947), Blue Cloud Abbey in Marvin, South Dakota (1954) and Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside, California (1983). Foundations from Conception were Saint Benedict's Abbey, Benet Lake, Wisconsin (1952) and Mount Michael Abbey, Elkhorn, Nebraska (1964). Westminster Monastery, Mission, British Columbia, Canada, became an abbey in 1953 as a foundation of Mount Angel. A later foundation of Mount Angel was Ascension Priory, Jerome, Idaho (1998). Corpus Christi, a Texan foundation of Subiaco Abbey, became an independent abbey in 1961. During this period a number of new communities outside the United States sprang up. The monastery of Jesus Christ Crucified in Esquipulas, Guatemala, was started by Saint Joseph Abbey in 1959. It became an abbey in 1982. The monastery of Our Lady of the Angels in Cuernavaca, Mexico, was started by Mount Angel Abbey in 1966. In Guatemala two other foundations were made in the 1960s. Marmion Abbey founded the Priory of San Jose (Solola and Quetzaltenango) in 1967. Blue Cloud Abbey's Resurrection Monastery in Coban became a priory in 1970. Subiaco Abbey founded Holy Family Monastery in Belize in 1971. A foundation in Peru by Saint Meinrad, in Nigeria by Subiaco Abbey, and in Denmark by Conception Abbey, and several small communities from Saint Benedict's Abbey, Benet Lake, in El Salvador and Nicaragua were later closed. Two houses in Massachusetts affiliated with the Swiss-American Congregation were Our Lady of Glastonbury Abbey, Hingham, Massachusetts (1973) and Saint Benedict Abbey, Still River, Massachusetts (1993). Monasteries in Richardton, North Dakota (Saint Mary's) and Pecos, New Mexico (Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey), originally under the aegis of the Swiss-American Congregation, later joined other monastic congregations. Two foundations made by Conception Abbey in Cottonwood, Idaho and Pevely, Missouri, subsequently closed.

Other Monastic Congregations. A third congregation of Benedictines, the English Benedictine Congregation, was represented in the twentieth century with the monastic foundation of Saint Anselm in Washington, D.C. Saint Anselm's became a priory in 1949 and an abbey in 1961. Two other communities also took root, one in 1919 near Newport, Rhode Island, originally under the jurisdiction of Downside Abbey, which became Portsmouth Abbey (1969) and one that was a foundation of Ampleforth Abbey, begun in Saint Louis in 1955, which became Saint Louis Abbey (1989).

The French Solesme Congregation made their first North American foundation in 1912 in Quebec. It became the Abbey of Saint Benoit-du-Lac. The same congregation was responsible for the Monastery of Our Lady of Clear Creek, Hulbert, Oklahoma (2000).

A number of other European Benedictine houses came to the U.S. after World War II. From China came monks of the Congregation of the Annunciation, who founded the community of Saint Andrew in Valyermo, which became an independent house in 1965. Another group of monastic refugees from Hungary founded Woodside Priory, California, in 1957. Earlier German monks from the Missionary Congregation of Saint Ottilien settled in Newton, New Jersey, in 1924, which became Saint Paul's Abbey (1947).

The Italian Camaldolese Congregation founded the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart in Big Sur, California (1958). The Italian Sylvestrine Congregation had their sole foundation of Saint Benedict Monastery, Oxford, Michigan (1960). The Italian Olivetan Congregation originally made a foundation in Louisiana but then took over the Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pecos, New Mexico (1973), as well as the monastic communities of Holy Trinity, Saint David, Arizona (1974), and the Monastery of the Risen Christ, San Luis Obispo, California (1992).

The Subiaco Congregation took over the monastery of Christ in the Desert, New Mexico (1996) and subsequently made foundations in Veracruz and Guanajusto, Mexico and in Chicago at Holy Cross Monastery (2000). Saint Mary's Monastery in Petersham, Massachusetts (1987) is also a member of the Subiaco Congregation.

Two independent Benedictine foundations in the United States were also made after the war. Father Damasus Winzen was the founder of Mount Saviour Monastery, Pine City, New York (1950). Father Leo Rudloff founded Weston Priory, Weston, Vermont (1952). Both of these communities remain under the jurisdiction of the abbot primate.

Bibliography: c. barry, Worship and Work (revised ed. Collegeville, Minn. 1993). t. kardong, The Benedictines (Collegeville, Minn. 1988). a. kessler, Benedictine Men and Women of Courage (Yankton, S.D. 1992). j. oetgen, Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania: A History of the First Benedictine Monastery in the United States (Washington, D.C. 2000); An American Abbot: Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. (Washington, D.C. 1997). j. rippinger, The Benedictine Order in the United States: An Interpretive History (Collegeville, Minn. 1991).

[j. rippinger]

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