St. Joseph Abbey, Louisiana

St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey is a Benedictine Abbeylocated in Saint Benedict, Louisiana within the Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictine Monasteries.

History

St. Joseph Abbey was founded in 1889 by a group of monks from St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. These monks from Indiana traveled to Louisiana at the invitation of the Most Reverend Francis Janssens to form a College Seminary for training local vocations. Up until this time the diocese of New Orleans was being staffed by foreign pastors and was in desperate need for native born priests. St. Benedict, Louisiana was not the first choice for the establishment of a monastery and seminary college. The traveling monks from St. Meinrad Abbey originally chose a spot of land consisting of seventeen hundred acres located in Ponchatoula, Louisiana near Baton Rouge. The monks arrived to this location in 1889 and founded a monastery and seminary. They named the original establishment Gessen. After just a few years at this location the monks encountered many hardships including unworkable land, and illness caused by mosquitoes. Because of this the monks decided to relocate their monastery and seminary to its present location in St. Benedict Louisiana near Covington north of New Orleans. The monks changed the name of the monastery and seminary from Gessen to St. Joseph. The present location of St. Joseph Abbey occupies a total of 1,500 acres (6.1 km²) of piney wooded land.

The Seminary College

The main focus of the monks of St. Joseph Abbey has always been the education and formation of future priests. In the many years from its founding, the seminary has seen many changes. The seminary started off as a boarding school for young boys who ranged in age from 13 to 18. As the number of boys increased and the formation process evolved, the school later became a four year seminary high school and a two year college. Young men would attend St. Joseph Seminary from grade 9 until their second year of college, and would then attend a major seminary, or Theology, before moving on to ordination in the Roman Catholic Priesthood. In the early days of the seminary the students and priests (ordained monks) shared the newly built monastery. The priests resided on the first floor, the students on the second, and classrooms and the chapel on the third. The brothers of the community (the monks who were not ordained priests) occupied a separate house apart from the monastery building. Today the seminary has become an undergraduate college offering bachelor's degrees in Liberal Arts to men seeking to become Roman Catholic Priests. It occupies its own buildings complete with classrooms, dorms, and recreational rooms. The seminary buildings are totally separated from the monastery. Even though the monastery has taken on numerous types of ministries in the past century the seminary remains its main focus. The rector, vice-rector, dean of students, and some of the teaching staff are monks from the monastery.

The Monastery

The monks of St. Joseph Abbey have met with very harsh circumstance ever since their arrival in 1889. The first monastery building was built soon after the monks arrival to St. Benedict, Louisiana around 1901 and was mostly a wooden structure. About five years after its completion the monastery was completely destroyed by fire. A new monastery was constructed out of steel and brick that was donated to the monks by Andrew Carnegie, a very well known entrepreneur of this time period. In the year 2001 the monastery encountered yet again another fire that destroyed much of the interior of the building. A complete renovation was begun and completed under the direction of Abbot Justin Brown, the current abbot. After the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s the priests and the brothers were consolidated into one building and the brothers separate house was done away with.

The Abbey Church

St. Joseph Abbey is known for its Abbey Church. It is a fairly large building built in the Romanesque style. In 1946 the Abbot of the monastery, Abbot Columbian, commissioned Dom Gregory De Wit, a very talented Benedictine artist, to fill the abbey church, monastery, and monastery refectory with beautiful murals. These murals depict saints, stories from the Bible, God's creation, and stories from the life of St. Benedict. De Wit was able to come up with a mixture of paint that would withstand the harsh humidity of South Louisiana. Many visitors have traveled to the Abbey just to see these remarkable paintings. However, this is not the only thing that draws visitors to the Abbey Church. In the early 2000s St. Joseph became a proud owner of a Dobson Pipe Organ opus 2000. This organ has become very well known. Many accomplished musicians have traveled to St. Joseph to play this organ and record many musical albums. This organ was also privileged to be the cover picture of the April 2001 edition of The American Organist magazine Fr. Sean Duggan, a monk of St. Joseph Abbey who teaches piano and organ at the State University of New York at Fredonia, is well known for his playing of this organ. The Abbey church has become the home for many worshipers who live in the area of the Monastery. Numerous people can be found every day attending the mass and prayers of the monks.

The Monks

Even though Seminary education has been the main focus of the monks of St. Joseph Abbey, it has not been the only ministry that the monks have engaged in. The monks currently staff parish churches in the area, bake bread, build caskets, and take in hundreds of guests every year. St. Joseph Abbey is currently made up of 45 monks, made up of both brothers and ordained priests. They currently have two junior monks, and two novices. The monks of St. Joseph pray the liturgy of the hours four times every day starting at 6:00 a.m. Centering on the Holy Mass at mid-day and ending with compline at 7:15 pm. The monks of St. Joseph Abbey have faithfully provided the area of Southern Louisiana with an intimate immersion in the Rule of St. Benedict, and have instructed countless others in the way of Christian Holiness.

External links

• Saint Joseph Abbey
• Our Past - Rosaryville
• Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd. - News
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