![Saint Louis Abbey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Saint_Louis_Abbey.svg)
The Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Louis (French: L’Abbaye Sainte Marie et Saint Louis) is an
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
of the
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
English Benedictine Congregation
The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation.
History and ...
(EBC) located in
Creve Coeur, in
St. Louis County, Missouri
St. Louis County is located in the eastern-central portion of Missouri. It is bounded by the City of St. Louis and the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, and the Meramec River to the south. At the 2020 census, th ...
in the United States. The Abbey is an important presence in the spiritual life of the
Archdiocese of St. Louis
The Archdiocese of St. Louis ( la, Archidiœcesis Sancti Ludovici) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the City of St. Louis and the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Perr ...
. The
monks
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedicat ...
of the Abbey live their faith according to the Benedictine discipline of 'prayer and work', praying the
Divine Office five times daily, celebrating daily
Masses in English and Latin, and working in the two parishes under their pastoral care and in the
Saint Louis Priory School
, image =
, address = 500 South Mason Road
, city = Creve Coeur
, state = Missouri
, zipcode = 63141
, country = United States
, ...
, which the Abbey runs as an apostolate.
The Abbey and its school sit on a campus in west St. Louis County, in the city of Creve Coeur.
History
Saint Louis Abbey was founded in 1955 as a
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...
of the Benedictine
Ampleforth Abbey
Ampleforth Abbey is a monastery of Benedictine monks a mile to the east of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It claims descent from the pre-Reformation community at Westminster Abbey through th ...
in
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
, England, which dispatched three monks to plant a new foundation in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. They came at the invitation of
Cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
Joseph E. Ritter and a group of prominent St. Louis lay Catholics, who desired a boys' school in their community run according to the English Benedictine educational tradition. Those original three monks, Father
Columba Cary-Elwes
Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, OSB (born Charles Evelyn George Cary-Elwes; 6 November 1903 – 22 January 1994) was an English Benedictine monk who professed vows at Ampleforth Abbey in York, England. As a missionary he travelled to Uganda, Tanzania a ...
, Fr. (later
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 ...
) Luke Rigby, and Fr. Timothy Horner, arrived in St. Louis in the summer of 1955 and set about the formation of a new monastic community, with Fr. Columba serving as the community's founding
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
and Fr. Timothy serving as the Priory School's founding headmaster.
Fr. Columba served as prior until 1967, when he departed for missionary work in Africa, and was succeeded in his post by Fr. Luke. The St. Louis Priory, as it then was, became independent of Ampleforth in 1973, and was elevated to an abbey in 1989.
At this time, Fr. Luke Rigby was elected as the first Abbot of Saint Louis Abbey.
He was in turn succeeded by Fr. Thomas Frerking,
O.S.B.
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, found ...
, a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
, former Headmaster of the
Saint Louis Priory School
, image =
, address = 500 South Mason Road
, city = Creve Coeur
, state = Missouri
, zipcode = 63141
, country = United States
, ...
and
Thomist
Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions a ...
scholar, who was elected to serve as Abbot on July 12, 1995 until retiring in June, 2018.
Fr. Gregory Mohrman,
O.S.B.
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, found ...
, '76 was announced as Abbot on June 8, 2018.
Construction of the distinctive Abbey Church was completed in 1962, and the original 1950s monastery was rebuilt and expanded in 2000–2001.
The various buildings of the Priory School also sit on the Abbey grounds; the current Lower House was constructed in the 1960s, and served as the Upper House at the time of its completion. The current Upper House was completed in several stages built from the 1970s through the 1990s.
Notable Brethren
*The Rt. Rev.
Columba Cary-Elwes
Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, OSB (born Charles Evelyn George Cary-Elwes; 6 November 1903 – 22 January 1994) was an English Benedictine monk who professed vows at Ampleforth Abbey in York, England. As a missionary he travelled to Uganda, Tanzania a ...
, OSB, an author, monastic leader and former titular Abbot of
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
, was the founding prior (1955–1967) of the Abbey.
*Fr. Timothy Horner, OSB, served as an editor for the widely used 1980 edition of the
Rule of Saint Benedict
The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.
The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...
, and has published an account of the founding of the Abbey and its school, ''In Good Soil''.
*Fr. Ralph Wright, OSB, is an accomplished poet, author and translator whose works include a reflection on the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
in poems and prose entitled ''Our Daily Bread'', and whose translation efforts include the English edition of ''The Joy of Believing'', a collection of the writings of the French mystic
Madeleine Delbrêl
Madeleine Delbrêl (1904–1964) was a French Catholic author, poet, and mystic, whose works include ''The Marxist City as Mission Territory'' (1957), ''The Contemporary Forms of Atheism'' (1962), and the posthumous publications ''We, the Ordinary ...
.
*Father
J. Augustine Wetta
Father Augustine Wetta, (born January 20, 1971) is an American Benedictine monk, author, essayist, and public speaker. He was ordained a Priesthood in the Catholic Church, priest on September 27, 2003, and serves as chaplain to the Saint Louis P ...
, OSB, the Abbey's director of vocations, is an author, public speaker, and essayist. His books include ''Humility Rules''
and ''The Eighth Arrow: Odysseus in the Underworld''.
Present day
As of 2020, St. Louis Abbey is home to a community of 26 monks.
In addition to their other duties and ministries, many of the brothers are directly involved in the Abbey's school, teaching classes in most areas of instruction including Theology, Latin, Fine Arts, English, Mathematics, and Science, and coaching sporting teams including Tennis and Rugby.
In line with the Benedictine tradition of offering hospitality and respite to travelers, the Abbey maintains a guest wing on the south side of the monastery with five rooms and two gardens. The brethren make themselves available to guests to hear confessions or provide counsel.
The Abbey Church, also known as the Church of St. Mary and St. Louis and the Priory Chapel, was designed by
Gyo Obata
Gyo Obata (小圃 暁, February 28, 1923 – March 8, 2022) was an American architect, the son of painter Chiura Obata and his wife, Haruko Obata, a floral designer. In 1955, he co-founded the global architectural firm HOK (formerly Hellmuth, O ...
of
Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum
HOK, formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum and legally HOK Group, Inc., is an American design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning firm, founded in 1955.
As of 2018, HOK is the largest U.S.-based architecture-engineering f ...
(HOK), with the Italian architect and engineer
Pier Luigi Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi (21 June 1891 – 9 January 1979) was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and is known wor ...
serving as consultant.
The Abbey Church was an important landmark and name-making project for HOK, now the world's largest architectural practice (according to the 2006 edition of the BD World Architecture 200). The church's circular facade consists of three tiers of whitewashed, thin-poured concrete
parabolic arches, the top one forming a bell-tower; the arches appear to float upwards from their grassy base. They are faced with dark insulated-fiberglass polyester window walls which create a meditative translucency when viewed from within. The church also contains a 14th-century sculpture of the Madonna and Christ child, a 17th-century holy font in the Della Robbia style, and more modern sacred art by artists from the United States, Great Britain, Spain, and France. The church is also home to a tracker action organ build by Gregor Hradetzky of Krems. On the grounds outside the church sit life-size sculptures of Saint Benedict, by Lithuanian-born artist
Wiktor Szostalo, and of the Virgin Mary, the "Holy Blessed Virgin Mother Mary, Our Lady of Grace" by American sculptor Philip Howie.
The Abbey Church serves as the home of the
Archdiocesan
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
parish of
Saint Anselm
Anselm of Canterbury, OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also called ( it, Anselmo d'Aosta, link=no) after his birthplace and (french: Anselme du Bec, link=no) after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the ...
. Monks of the abbey serve as pastor and associate pastor in the parish.
References
External links
Saint Louis Abbey websiteSt. Anselm's parish website
{{Authority control
Benedictine monasteries in the United States
Churches in Missouri
Monasteries of the English Benedictine Congregation
Christian organizations established in 1955
Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis
1955 establishments in Missouri
20th-century Christian monasteries