Blue Cloud Abbey

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The Abbey Blue Cloud ( Engl. Blue Cloud Abbey ) was a Benedictine monastery near the town of Marvin in Grant County in the US state of South Dakota . It existed from 1950 until its dissolution in 2012. The abbey was dedicated to Our Lady of the Snow and had as its mother abbey the Archabbey of St. Meinrad in Spencer County , Indiana . The diocese was the Diocese of Sioux Falls in the largest city in South Dakota; it also belonged to the Swiss-American Congregation .

history

During the first half of the 20th century was by monks of St. Meinrad Abbey of Indiana operates four small mission churches in the Dakotas. Two of them were in North Dakota and two in South Dakota . The purpose of these churches was to serve the local population, with a particular commitment to the native Indians in the Indian reservations and for this reason several schools were operated. When the monastery chapter decided to build a monastery in 1949 in order to establish itself more strongly in the region, an area in the immediate vicinity of the city of Marvin in South Dakota was chosen as the location. At first they preferred a plot of land over the Missouri and James Rivers near Yankton , but were not satisfied with the view of the WNAX (AM) radio towers built a few years earlier . A four-man troop sent by Ignatius Esser , the abbot of St. Meinrad, therefore drove on in the direction of Fargo , before discovering the said property near Marvin on the way there. Back in the days when Interstate 29 did not pass, the group found a range of wooded hills above Grant County's Whetstone Valley . Although the land was rocky, it appealed to the emissaries, who then drove to the nearby small town of Milbank to ask around. There they were sent to Effner Benedict, the town's banker ; the latter informed them that the land had only been put up for sale 30 minutes earlier and offered them the 300 acres for $ 22 an acre. The Benedictines accepted this offer and founded the monastery here with a total of 40 founding members.

Construction began that same year, with the monastery building designed by the Chicago architect Edo Belli (1918-2003). June 24, 1950 is given as the official founding day of the monastery, although the monastery was initially still considered to be fully dependent on the St. Meinrad Abbey. On August 5, 1952, it became a semi-independent monastery, before it was elevated to a fully autonomous abbey on March 21, 1954. In the same year the St. Meinrad Abbey received the status of an archabbey . Gilbert Hess (1908-1995) was elected as the first abbot of the parish in 1954 . At the height of his career there, the abbey still had 40 monks. The abbey finally had the highest membership under the second abbot Alan Berndt (1920-2016), who was elected abbot in 1970 and held this office until 1986. Under his leadership, the mission schools of the abbey were also transferred and administered to the Indians, for whom they were previously established. Berndt's successor was Denis Quinkert (* 1936), who remained in office until 1991/92 and then handed it over to Thomas Hillenbrand (* 1939). When he resigned on January 1, 2009, Denis Quinkert was again elected abbot of the monastery. Quinkert had served in the meantime as pastor of St. Lawrence Parish in Milbank until 2002 and was then active as novice master . Shortly before Hillenbrand's resignation, Quinkert had returned to the Blue Cloud Abbey as prior .

His task in 2012 was also to dissolve the monastery due to the aging of the convent and the shortage of young people. At the time of the dissolution, the monastery only had twelve members, three of whom were over 90 years old. A total of 14 people are said to have belonged to the monastery, the majority of whom were already over 70 years old. The remaining members had previously decided to close themselves and held their last mass on August 5, 2012 - the feast day of the patronage .

In December 2013 a Catholic non-profit organization took over the property and has since operated the Abbey of the Hills Inn and Retreat Center , which also includes two hermitages .

Daughter monastery

In response to an appeal by Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963 . To the Catholic Church in North America To help the Catholic Churches in Latin America, the abbey founded a daughter monastery in Cobán , Guatemala in 1964 . The small community of monks of the Priorato de la Resurreccion remained completely dependent on the Blue Clouds Abbey until the end and was transferred to the Archabbey of St. Meinrad after the abbey was dissolved.

List of Abbots of Blue Cloud

  1. Gilbert Hess (1954 to 1970)
  2. Alan Berndt (1970 to 1986)
  3. Denis Quinkert (1986 to 1991/92)
  4. Thomas Hillenbrand (1992 to 2009)
  5. Denis Quinkert (2009 to 2012)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary: Abbot Alan Berndt, OSB, monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey (English), accessed on September 16, 2018
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h All Good Things Must End (English), accessed on September 16, 2018
  3. ↑ Gilbert Hess in Biographia Benedictina (Benediktinerlexikon.de), accessed on September 16, 2018
  4. ↑ Alan Berndt in Biographia Benedictina (Benediktinerlexikon.de), accessed on September 16, 2018
  5. ↑ a b c d e Denis Quinkert in Biographia Benedictina (Benediktinerlexikon.de), accessed on September 16, 2018
  6. ↑ Thomas Hillenbrand in Biographia Benedictina (Benediktinerlexikon.de), accessed on September 16, 2018
  7. ↑ Abbey of the Hills Inn and Retreat Center , accessed September 17, 2018
  8. ↑ List of the associated institutions of the Swiss-American Congregation ( Memento of September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) (English), accessed on September 16, 2018