Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey or Clear Creek Abbey is a
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
Abbey in the Ozark Mountains near
Hulbert in
Cherokee County, Oklahoma
Cherokee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 46,987. Its county seat is Tahlequah, which is also the capital of the Cherokee Nation.Burnett, Amanda"Cherokee County,"''Encyclopedi ...
. It is located in the
Diocese of Tulsa.
Origins
The monastery traces its roots to the Abbey of Fontgombault in France. Thirty-one American Catholic men, seeking to live the full Benedictine life, went to
Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption at
Fontgombault
Fontgombault () is a commune in the Indre department in central France. It is known for Fontgombault Abbey, a Benedictine monastery famous for its Gregorian chant and traditional liturgy.
Geography
The commune is located in the parc naturel r ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, which is a monastery of the
Solesmes Congregation The Solesmes Congregation is an association of monasteries within the Benedictine Confederation headed by the Abbey of Solesmes.
History
The congregation was founded in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI as the French Benedictine Congregation, with the the ...
.
[Hinton, Carla]
"Oklahoma monks' Spartan life is Christian 'witness to the world,'"
''The Oklahoman'', March 31, 2013. Accessed May 8, 2015. In 1999, seven of these men, now monks from Fontgombault, along with six other monks from Canada and France, established a community near Hulbert, Oklahoma at the invitation of Bishop
Edward James Slattery
Edward James Slattery (born August 11, 1940) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa in Oklahoma from 1993 to 2016.
Biography
Early life
The second of seven children, Edward Slatt ...
.
Clear Creek is the second monastery of the Solesmes Congregation established in the United States; the first is a house of nuns at
Westfield, Vermont
Westfield is a town in Orleans County, Vermont United States. The population was 534 at the 2020 census. The town was founded in 1780 and named after Rhode Island general and politician, William West, a supporter of Vermont statehood.
Westfiel ...
. The monastery is being built in phases, and until the church was finished, Masses were said in the crypt.
Abbey Community
In February 2010, Clear Creek Abbey gained abbatial status. It uses the 1962
Roman Missal
The Roman Missal ( la, Missale Romanum) is the title of several missals used in the celebration of the Roman Rite. Along with other liturgical books of the Roman Rite, the Roman Missal contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the m ...
.
["D.C. Catholics join effort for Oklahoma monastery,"](_blank)
''Washington Times'', October 31, 2003. Accessed May 8, 2015. The choir is well known for its
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...
. Its first
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
, as of 2010, is Dom Philip Anderson, who had been the prior since the monastery's founding. He has said, "We just follow the old monastic life. We pray, worship and do manual labor and give counseling to people... There's a whole culture war going on and a series of disappointments with the Catholic Church in America. People look to this monastery as a new beginning, as a new element that has a solid backing in a long tradition of monastic life."
Clear Creek is currently actively recruiting to its full capacity of 60-70 monks. As of 2003, there were 22 monks, while by 2013, there were over 40.
The community currently numbers 60 monks. In recent years, a community of lay families has started to gather around the abbey.
The monastery is also actively fundraising, having raised $4 million (as of 2003) of a target of $32 million. After a large gift was received in 2009, construction on the church moved forward in 2011. The west façade, the nave, and the transept were raised to half their intended height. A roof was put over this new structure, allowing it to be used as a church. In 2013 the schematic architectural plans for the remaining buildings were completed. A contract for the construction of the church’s eastern portion, or
chevet, was signed on March 10, 2016.
See also
*
List of communities using the Tridentine Mass
Despite the Tridentine Mass being supplanted by a new form of the Roman Rite Mass, some communities continued celebrating pre-conciliar rites or adopted them later. This includes priestly societies and religious institutes which use some pre-1 ...
References
External links
Clear Creek Monastery official websiteThomas Gordon Smith Architects: building the monasteryArticle about the Kansas professors whose students founded the monastery*
ttp://www.lincolndiocese.org/op-ed/bishop-s-column/3966-monastic-silence Column about the monastery by a Nebraskan bishop*'
Interview with Dom Philip Anderson: We Must All Build Bridges''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clear Creek
Benedictine monasteries in the United States
Communities using the Tridentine Mass
Christian organizations established in 1999
20th-century Christian monasteries
Buildings and structures in Cherokee County, Oklahoma
Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa
Cherokee County, Oklahoma
1999 establishments in Oklahoma