St.Vincent Monastery and College
Founded in 1846 by the Bavarian monk Boniface Wimmer, St. Vincent Archabbey, near Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was the first Benedictine monastery in the United States and one of the first Roman Catholic institutions in America to see to the needs of German Catholic immigrants.
The monks of St. Vincent attempted to preserve their German heritage while at the same time adapting to modern life in the United States. The monastery, located in the Diocese of Greensburg (formerly part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh), formed a college and sent out missions to establish many of the early Benedictine monastic communities in the country.The Benedictines emerged with a new determination and enthusiasm in the 1800s after having survived the assaults of Enlightenment thinkers and Napoleon’s
antimonastic policies. Wimmer, a young monk from the abbey of St. Michaels in Metten, personified the monastic renewal. Determined to bring the traditions of Benedictine education and evangelization to the growing number of German Catholic immigrants in America, Wimmer was given permission to establish a monastic community. With the assistance of Bishop Michael O’Conner, Wimmer was able to purchase a tract of land known as Sportsman’s Hall, which was within the boundaries of the Diocese of Pittsburgh near Latrobe, Westmoreland County. Wimmer was determined to make the monastery self-sufficient and successful like similar institutions in his homeland. Several buildings were put up during the first years. Monks worked the surrounding farmland and constructed a gristmill and brewery on nearby property in the 1850s. The college and seminary opened in the fall of 1846 and educated both young German boys and those who wished to enter the priesthood.
Wimmer was soon embroiled in conflicts with Bishop O’Conner over issues of authority and autonomy. The German monk did not wish to yield control to the Irish bishop.
When O’Conner intended to send Irish seminarians from Pittsburgh to St. Vincent, Wimmer refused, fearing outside influence before the monastery was firmly established. Eventually a compromise was reached and they were accepted on a case-by-case basis. Another dispute erupted over the sale of beer that was produced in the monastery’s brewery to local taverns. The bishop, who favored the temperance movement, ordered them to cease distribution of alcohol and close the brewery. The monks agreed to stop distribution, but the brewery continued to operate. When the case went to the Vatican it was decided that the brewery could provide beer only for the monastery. In 1860 a new brewery was constructed at St. Vincent. Wimmer and his supporters continued to lobby the Vatican, and by 1855 were able to secure the status of “exempt abbey” for the monastery, placing it beyond the control of local bishops.In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Benedictines of St. Vincent were firmly established and were able to expand their order in America. Missions and monastic communities were successfully established in Minnesota, Kansas, New Jersey, Kentucky, Virginia, Illinois, and other places in Pennsylvania. Missions to Texas, Nebraska, and Tennessee were ultimately unsuccessful. The Civil War hampered mission efforts in the 1860s and severed communication with new communities in the southern states. Several of the younger monks at the monastery began to receive draft notices in 1862 as a result of the Conscription Act. Wimmer dispatched some of the monks to Canada, and some were exempted by the War Department. Five served in the Union army until the end of the war.
After the Civil War, the monks of St. Vincent renewed their missionary activities, especially in the war-torn South. The college and seminary continued to grow in size and reputation, attracting students from other parts of the country. By the first decades of the twentieth century, the student population began to become more ethnically diverse.
The monastery was slowly beginning to shed some of its German heritage as new groups of immigrant Catholics came to western Pennsylvania. Wimmer died in 1887, after leading his community for over forty years. His successors faced the challenges of losing students and seminarians during the world wars and attempting to reconcile their German heritage with American patriotism. During World War I, before U.S. involvement, many of the German-born and German-descended monks advocated neutrality. When America entered the war, the monastery firmly supported the Allies and held daily prayer vigils, but continued to openly display signs of their German heritage. During World War II many young men affiliated with St. Vincent’s went off to fight, and the monastery did not have to face as much popular anti-German sentiment as in the previous war. Other challenges appeared in the form of the Spanish influenza of 1918, a costly and ultimately unsuccessful mission to China in the 1930s, and a fire that destroyed several monastery buildings in 1963. The monastery and college have continued to thrive despite these obstacles, while maintaining strong elements of German and Benedictine tradition.Thomas White
See also Pennsylvania
References and Further Reading Kline, Omer U. The Saint Vincent
Archabbey Gristmill and Brewery 1854—2000. Latrobe, PA: St. Vincent Archabbey, 2000.
Oetgen, Jerome. An American Abbot: Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. Latrobe, PA: Archabbey, 1976.
------. Mission to America: A History of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the First Benedictine Monastery in the United States. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 2000.
Szarnicki, Henry A. Michael O’Connor: First Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh 1843—1860. Pittsburgh: Wolfson, 1975.