New Location
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In May of 1999, we moved from our parish site in Meguro, Tokyo, to our current site in Fujimi. The move from parish ministry to a simpler and more contemplative form of monastic life had been a long time in coming.
Beuronese Pioneers
In the early 1930s Fathers Hildebrand Yaiser OSB and Joseph Schemerbach OSB arrived in Japan
with other monks from Beuron Abbey in Germany. They set up Japan's first
Benedictine monastery in Chigasaki, a seaside city about an hour south
of Tokyo. Because of the adverse political climate in Germany and Japan,
Beuron had to close its foundation before the end of the decade. Father
Hildebrand and Father Joseph, however, remained in Japan for the duration
of the Second World War.
Minnesota Monks
After the war these two Beuronese monks petitioned Saint John's Abbey in
Collegeville, Minnesota, to support the continuance of Benedictine life
in Japan. Abbot Alcuin Deutsch OSB responded favorably to their request, and
soon thereafter Father Aloysius Michels OSB became the first monk from
Saint John's to join the new priory.
For the first thirty years Fathers Hildebrand, Joseph, Aloysius and
the other Saint John's monks Abbot Baldwin Dworschak OSB sent to Japan dedicated
themselves to pastoral ministry. They oversaw the design and building of
an architecturally renowned church and attended to the spiritual needs of
a parish community that grew very rapidly in the years immediately
following the war.
Monastic Development
In the late 1970s Abbots John Eidenschink OSB and
Jerome Theisen OSB
urged the community of Saint Anselm's Priory to strengthen and give
greater expression to its monastic identity while continuing to serve the
parish. It was at that time that the community began to pray the Liturgy
of the Hours in common, established a novitiate, and renewed its
search for a site outside Tokyo on which to build a new moanstery.
Shortly after his election in 1992, Abbot Timothy Kelly OSB visited
Japan. At that time we concluded that it was necessary to make clear our
identity as a Benedictine monastery in order to attract Japanese men to
the Benedictine way of life. He therefore charged the community to
formulate a plan to re-found Saint Anselm's Priory by the end of the
century.
Prayerful Service
In the years since founding Trinity Benedictine Monastery at Fujimi, the community has worked to make prayer the central feature of our monastic life. In addition to this primary work, we also work with our guest ministry and do pastoral outreach to the surrounding Catholic communities.
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