About Saint John's Abbey
Collegeville
The Benedictines came to Minnesota in 1856 from St. Vincent Abbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and, earlier, to Latrobe in 1846 from the Bavarian abbey of Metten in southeastern Germany. In the decade before his death, Fr. Bruno Riss OSB (1829-1900) recalled "The Earliest Years of Saint John's" in a series of articles first published in The Record, the oldest student newspaper in the state. Saint John's Abbey Archives makes the articles available online.
Bavaria's weiß und blau (white and blue) appear in the Abbey's coat of arms as a reminder of our roots. Benedicta Riepp OSB led dedicated and talented women to Pennsylvania from Bavaria and then in 1857 to St. Joseph, Minnesota. Fr. Alexius Hoffmann OSB, a prolific writer who died in 1940, sketched the early history of Saint John's University that is made available online by Saint John's University Archives.
Statistics
Saint John's is a member of the American-Cassinese Congregation that includes 20 Benedictine communities for men in North America and abroad with a combined total in August 2007 of 868 monks. Saint Vincent Archabbey is the largest Benedictine community of men in the hemisphere with 170 professed monks. Saint John's Abbey follows with 153 professed. The 18 other monasteries of the Congregation range in size from 5 to 59 monks, clerics, bishops and claustral oblates (Ordo 2008, p. 347). In 2000 Benedictines numbered about 3,240 women and 1,790 men in North American houses and their missions.
Saint John's Abbey Contacts
Abbot John Klassen OSB
320 363-2011
Br. Paul Richards OSB
Director of Formation and Abbey Spokesperson
320 363-3007
<prichards @ csbsju.edu>
Br. Kelly Ryan OSB, Abbot's Secretary
320 363-2546
|
