Archabbey of St. Vincent

St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe

The Archabbey of St. Vincent (Latin Archiabbatia Sancti Vincentii ; English Saint Vincent Archabbey ) in Latrobe (Pennsylvania) / USA is the first Benedictine monastery in North America and the mother abbey of the American-Cassinese Benedictine Congregation .

history

The St. Vincent Monastery was founded in 1846 by the Benedictine monk Father Bonifaz Wimmer from the Bavarian Abbey of Metten as the first Benedictine monastery in the United States of America . Within just five years, the number of monks rose to over 100, so that St. Vincent was elevated to an abbey as early as 1855 , with Father Bonifaz Wimmer as the first abbot . Numerous subsidiaries followed, which made St. Vincent the mother monastery of its own congregation , so that in 1892 it was elevated to an archabbey .

The new monastery maintained from the outset a school and other educational institutions that make up the Saint Vincent College and as a theological training center in the rank of a faculty , the Saint Vincent Seminary emerged.

Pope Pius XII awarded the monastery church on August 22, 1955 the title of a minor basilica .

St. Vincent Abbey Church, in front of which is a monument to the founder Archabbot Bonifaz Wimmer

Benedictine monasteries founded by the Archabbey of St. Vincent

in the United States

• 1856 Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota
• 1857 Saint Benedict's Convent in Atchison, Kansas
• 1857 Newark Convent , New Jersey
• 1867 Maryhelp Abbey in Belmont, North Carolina
• 1876 Saint Bernard's Monastery in Cullman, Alabama
• 1885 Saint Procopius Monastery in Lisle, Illinois
• 1886 Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City, Colorado
• 1891 Saint Bede Monastery in Peru, Illinois

in other countries

• 1892 Saint Peter-Muenster Abbey in Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada
• 1964 Taipei Priory, Taiwan
• 1964 Takeover of the Mosteiro de São Bento (Priorat) in Vinhedo, Brazil

These monasteries, which in turn established further new ones, are united in the American-Cassinese Benedictine Congregation , which was established in 1855 . The first abbot praeses of the congregation for life was Bonifaz Wimmer.

Heirs

• Bonifaz Wimmer (Upper 1846 / Abbot 1855 / Archabbot 1883–1887)
• Andreas Hintenach 1888-1892
• Leander Schnerr 1892-1918
• Aurelius Stehle 1918–1930
• Alfred Koch 1930–1949 res. / † 1951
• Denis Strittmatter 1949–1963
• Rembert Weakland 1963-1967
• Egbert H. Donovan 1967-1979
• Leopold Krul 1979–1983
• Paul Regis Maher 1983–1990
• Douglas R. Nowicki 1991-2020
• Martin de Porres Bartel 2020 -...

literature

• Basilius Doppelfeld, Monasticism and Church Salvation Service , Münsterschwarzach 1974, 13–98.
• Basilius Dopplefeld, Art. "Saint Vincent", in: LThK ³ , Vol. 9 (2000), Col. 56.
• Jerome Oetgen, Mission to America. A History of Saint Vincent Archabbey, The First Benedictine Monastery in the United States . Washington DC 2000.
• Joel Rippinger, The Benedictine order in the United States: an interpretive history , Collegeville, Minn. 1990, pp. 19-43.

Web links

• Homepage of the Archabbey of St. Vincent
• Brief overview of the founding of monasteries in the USA on the homepage of Metten Monastery

Individual evidence

1. ↑ St. Vincent Archabbey Basilica at gcatholic.org

Coordinates: 40 ° 17 ′ 38 ″  N , 79 ° 24 ′ 4 ″  W.