Welcome to Saint Vincent Archabbey

By Jerome Oetgen, author of "An American Abbot; Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., 1809-1887" and a forthcoming "History of Saint Vincent."
It was Boniface Wimmer's aim to transplant the ancient Benedictine Order from Europe to the New World. The Benedictines had already experienced a long and notable history in Europe when Wimmer introduced them to America. They had founded centers of spirituality, learning, and culture throughout the Old World, and these centers, for nearly thirteen centuries, had made unparalleled contributions not just to the dissemination but, at times, to the very survival of Western civilization. During the early Middle Ages Benedictine communities, and the schools attached to them, had kept the light of faith and learning alive as barbarian tribes descended upon Europe, destroying the fabric of the old Roman civilization. And in the nineteenth century, when Europe was once again devastated by invasion, chaos, and war, a Benedictine revival in France and Germany confronted a rampant secularism and reasserted those Christian values which for generations had informed the spiritual and intellectual foundation of Western culture.

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Saint Michael's Abbey, Wimmer's Abbey in Metten, Bavaria

From the beginning education had played an important role in the Benedictine tradition. Schools were attached to the monasteries from earliest times, and there had developed in them a heritage of humane and liberal learning centered on such Benedictine values as stability, community, hospitality, and moderation. "We intend to establish a school for the Lord's service," Saint Benedict wrote in his sixth century monastic Rule. "In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome."
Wimmer's plan was to imitate the model of his Benedictine predecessors by establishing strong, stable communities of monks who would devote their lives to the service of God, the pursuit of learning, and the education of youth. He believed that America was fertile soil for the planting of this ancient tradition and that the tradition itself would contribute a new and vital spiritual energy to the young nation. He wrote: "I am determined to have our monasteries not only schools of religion and the sciences, but also nurseries of the fine arts in order to develop a better taste for these things and to keep from our people the American mercenary spirit which thinks of nothing but how to make a living, because necessity demands it and example encourages it."
With the aid of several American bishops, as well as friends and benefactors in Europe (including King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Cardinal Karl August von Reisach of the Roman Curia, and Archbishop Gregory Scherr of Munich) Wimmer established at Saint Vincent the community he had envisioned. And then for the remaining forty years of his life, he worked tirelessly to strengthen the monastery and school in Pennsylvania and to establish others throughout the United States. From Saint Vincent he founded Benedictine communities and schools in Minnesota, Kansas, North Carolina, New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia and elsewhere. In 1855 Pope Pius IX elevated Saint Vincent to the rank of an abbey, naming Wimmer its first abbot -- the first Benedictine abbot in North America. And by 1887, when he died, Wimmer was recognized throughout the American church as an outstanding ecclesiastic and educator, a worthy successor of Saint Boniface, his patron and the Benedictine who had introduced Christian culture to Germany.

Benedictine Tradition