Stable and Adaptable...A spirituality for the long haul
Saint John’s
We now come to the Benedictines, who are not as yet represented in the United States. In my opinion they are the most competent to relieve the great want of priests in America. In support of my opinion I will adduce some facts.
History abundantly proves:
- The Benedictines are men of stability; they are not wandering monks; they acquire lands and bring them under cultivation and become thoroughly affiliated to the country and people to which they belong, and receive their recruits from the district in which they have established themselves.
- The Benedictine Order by its Rule is so constituted that it can very readily adapt itself to all times and circumstances. The contemplative and practical are harmoniously blended; agriculture, manual labor, literature, missionary work, education, were drawn into the circle of activity which Saint Benedict placed before his disciples. Hence they soon felt at home in all parts of Europe and the same could be done in America.
When we consider North America as it is today, we can see at a glance that there is no other country in the world which offers greater opportunities for the establishment and spread of the Benedictine Order, no country that is so much like our old Europe was.
[Extracts from an article by Boniface Wimmer, OSB, concerning the missions of America, published in the Augsburg Postzeitung, November 8, 1845. Reprinted in Colman Barry, OSB, Worship and Work, 3rd ed. (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1993), 481-82.]
Saint Benedict’s
During its nine hundred years of existence, Saint Walburga’s Monastery in Eichstätt, Bavaria, has passed through vicissitudes of fire, war, famine, and secularization. It has survived them all while witnessing the rise and fall of empires, kingdoms, and dynasties. Though old in years, it has always retained that spirit of Saint Benedict which makes for perennial youth. Sometimes this spirit wavered, but it was never extinguished. Fortunately for America, when the call came to plant a branch house in the new soil of the New World, the religious spirit of Saint Walburga’s was at its height.
One day in April of the year 1851 the peace of Saint Walburga’s in Eichstätt was disturbed when a traveler from America knocked at its portals. But his loud and determined knock could not have disturbed the conventual silence as much as did his message. Father Boniface Wimmer, OSB, the stranger at the door, had come to apply for the sisters to teach the German immigrants in Pennsylvania.
Father Wimmer remarked to a friend that the sisters were more enthusiastic than he had expected and without much ado promised him whatever help he needed. The bishop of Eichstätt gave his approval at once.
[From M. Grace McDonald, OSB, With Lamps Burning, American Benedictine Academy, Historical Studies: Monasteries and Convents, 4. Convent of Saint Benedict (St. Joseph, Minnesota: Saint Benedict’s Convent, 1957), 7-8.]