Christmas scene icon by Nathanael Hauser, OSB - St. John's Abbey

Nathanael Hauser, OSB,
pray-paints icons, 4
Saint Benedict’s
Monastery celebrates
Sesquicentennial, 6
Abbey Guesthouse
dedicated October 22, 9
Abbot Wolfgang of Metten
recalls early days of
Boniface Wimmer, 12
The Stella Maris Chapel,
14
Abbey Aquariums, 16
New books by monks, 22
Buddhist and Catholic
monks dialogue on
celibacy, 24
Christmas scene icon by Nathanael Hauser, OSB

Contents
CORRECTIONS, Fall 2006 issue:
p. 8 – “Unidentified visitor” is
Rt. Rev. James L. Jelinek, Bishop of the
Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota.
pp. 16, 18 – Monk #99 is Isidore Glyer,
OSB.
p. 21 – Kevin Seasoltz, OSB, was ordained
for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
Features
6
Saint Benedict’s Monastery
celebrates Sesquicentennial
by Brenda Brown
9
Abbey Guesthouse dedicated
October 22
12
Abbot Wolfgang of Metten recalls
early days of Boniface Wimmer
translated by Mark Thamert, OSB
Departments
3 From Editor and Abbot
18 The Abbey Chronicle
21 Vocation News
The Abbey Banner
Magazine of
Saint John’s Abbey
Volume 6, Issue 3
Winter 2006
Editor: Daniel Durken, OSB
ddurken@csbsju.edu
Page 4
Cover Story
Nathanael Hauser, OSB,
pray-paints icons
by Daniel Durken, OSB
14
The Stella Maris Chapel is built,
burned, rebuilt, renovated and
restored
by David Klingeman, OSB
16
Prescription for lowering
blood pressure: an aquarium
by Daniel Durken, OSB
22
New books by monks
28 Banner Bits
30 Obituary: Bartholomew Sayles,
OSB
Copy Editor and Proofreader:
Dolores Schuh, CHM
Designer: Pam Rolfes
Circulation: Ruth Athmann, Cathy Wieme,
Mary Gouge
Printer: Palmer Printing, St. Cloud, Minnesota
Member Catholic Press Association
24
Buddhist and Catholics monks
dialogue on celibacy
by William Skudlarek, OSB
26
Five SJU ’06 alumni join Benedictine
Volunteer Corps
27 and 29
Retirements of Brothers George and
Francis, and Marlin Eich
28
Janet Merdan, new abbey tailor,
loves to sew and sew
by Daniel Durken, OSB
31 Spiritual Life
Back page SJA and SBM
2007 Sesquicentennial Events
NOTE: Please send your change of address to: Ruth Athmann at rathmann@csbsju.edu or P.O. Box 7222,
Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7222 or call 800-635-7303.
The Abbey Banner is published three
times annually (spring, fall, winter) by the
Benedictine monks of Saint John’s Abbey for
our relatives, friends and Oblates.
The Abbey Banner is online at
www.sja.osb.org/AbbeyBanner
Saint John’s Abbey, Box 2015, Collegeville,
Minnesota 56321.
Lee Hanley

Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB
The Saint John’s
Abbey Christmas
Card
by Daniel Durken, OSB
The 2006 Christmas card
of Saint John’s Abbey,
designed by Nathanael
Hauser, OSB, whose icons are
featured on the cover and in the cover story of this issue,
portrays a different color Holy Family than those we usually
see. Their skin and features are obviously African.
Why did Father Nathanael
choose to depict Mary, Joseph
and the Child Jesus like this?
He told me he first considered
the context of the original
Christmas. This family was
on the run, escaping from the
search-and-destroy plot of
King Herod. Mother, husband
and child were no strangers to
fear, violence, discrimination
and homelessness.
Who are the despised, the persecuted, the forgotten and
abandoned we see or hear about on our evening TV news?
Nathanael thought of the refugees of Darfur and Somalia
where there is no peace, no security, no food or clean
water. These are the people who continue to be hounded or
ignored as the Holy Family was. This family, moreover, is
dressed like middle class people who have a home but cannot
live there because of the displacement caused by war
and civil strife. Their number is legion.
I hope this photograph will encourage readers to assist
refugees, the poor, the persecuted, the forgotten. Please
consider contributing financially to such groups as these:
• Missionaries of Africa / 1622 21 st Street, N.W. /
Washington, D.C. 20009-1089
• CARE / Gift Center / PO Box 1870 / Merrifield, VA
22116-8070
• Covenant House / 346 West 17 th Street / New York,
NY 10011-5002
• American Indian Relief Council / PO Box 6200 /
Rapid City, SD 57709-6200
• A favorite charity or food shelf in your own
community
I wish you a Giving Christmas and New Year. +
A joy full of dust
and dung . . .
by Abbot John Klassen, OSB
FROM EDITOR AND ABBOT
Some would say it never
happened. But Mary
remembered. She knew
it with her whole being. She
remembered how she and Joseph
wandered in the damp cold to fi nd some shelter; the rich
odor of the cave; the warm, wet breath of the animals.
They looked on with lazy interest at this couple who joined
them, as if to say, “If you think we are leaving here, in
your dreams!”
Her body recalled the sharp straw and the way it poked
her back and feet. Her body remembered the screaming
pain of giving birth. And the blood, it seemed as if
it would never stop. Joseph’s look of terror; the spit she
used to clean the child’s eyes. The donkey chewed hay
the whole time, oblivious to the miracle. It was so frightening.
But then the shepherds came, seemingly out of nowhere.
Scruffy and ragged, these men and women were angels of
mercy. Out of their meager supplies they helped make it
a little more comfortable. They were no strangers to birth
under rough conditions.
With uncontained excitement they told of the angels
celebrating the glory of the birth of this child. She was
overwhelmed with joy as she recalled the words of her
cousin Elizabeth: “Blest is she who believed that the
Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled.” She broke into
tears, thinking how impossible all of this was. What kind
of a God would do this?
Only a God who was not afraid. Only a God who
would risk everything because of love. Only a God who
loved the creation, who loved human beings in spite of
everything, because of everything. Only a God who wanted
human beings to once again breathe divinity, to know
their status as sons and daughters. It was a joy full of dust
and dung but it was a joy never to be forgotten.
She held the child close, overwhelmed by a fierce and
tender love. The song of the angels came to her. “Glory
to God in high heaven and peace to all people on earth.” +
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 3

Lee Hanley
FEATURE
In the mid-1970s Father Nathanael,
a monk of Saint John’s Abbey,
became interested in the study and
painting of icons. At that time there
were no books available on this subject,
so he taught himself. A breakthrough
came in the summer of 1987
when he was a student at the International
Benedictine College of Saint
Anselm in Rome. Seeing so many
magnifi cent mosaics in the churches
of the Eternal City, Nathanael was
drawn to learn more about icons.
He enrolled in three two-week
courses on icons taught by Egon
Sendler, leading Jesuit iconographer
and author of The Icon: Image of the
Invisible, at the Center for Russian
Studies in Meudon, outside of Paris.
Each session was an immersion experience
at the levels of the theology,
aesthetics and techniques of icons.
The two-thousand year history
of icons is divided into Greek and
Russian styles. Nathanael chose
to concentrate on the Russian style
page 4 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
Nathanael prepares an icon of John the Baptist.
Nathanael Hauser, OSB,
pray-paints icons
by Daniel Durken, OSB
which does not allow the artist to
show brush strokes in the painting
until the very end when a few flicks
of paint are added to the image. He
has painted close to one hundred
icons, his favorite being
Christ the Pantocrator
(“Ruler of All”).
An essential aspect
in painting an icon
is prayer. Nathanael
repeats the Jesus Prayer
(“Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of the living God,
have mercy on me a sinner.”)
or simply speaks
to the figure of his icon.
Without the element of
prayer, the icon lacks
spirit which is noticeable.
Even when the
technique is imperfect,
the prayer of the iconographer
makes a difference.
Christmas is the ideal season for
icons, for the Christ made flesh and
dwelling among us is the basis of all
icons. The purpose of the icon is to
make the invisible visible, to reveal
Nathanael’s icon of Jesus and the four evangelists,
top right, clockwise: John, Luke, Mark, Matthew
Lee Hanley

Nathanael’s icon of Jesus Christ
the divinity in the humanity of Jesus.
There is nothing abstract about the
icon as it brings to the fore the personality
of Jesus.
The icon Nathanael chose for the
cover of this issue presents Jesus
and Mary in the center of the scene.
Jesus’ swaddling clothes look like a
burial shroud and his manger resembles
a tomb, thus uniting his birth
and death. Mary, personifying the
Church, contemplates the meaning
of the Nativity and the scenes around
her explain that contemplation.
Nathanael’s icon of Mary
and the child Jesus
Lee Hanley
At the lower left corner is Joseph
from a scene from an unapproved
gospel. He is sitting outside, wondering
about what is happening. The
devil is disguised as a shepherd who
wants to know if Joseph believes this
newborn child is really the Son of
God. Joseph does believe and is a
witness to the humanity of Jesus. At
the lower right midwives give Jesus
his first bath, another proof of his
humanity.
The two scenes at the top of the
icon assert the divinity of Jesus.
FEATURE
Angels announce to shepherds their
message of great joy, “. . . a savior
has been born for you who is Messiah
and Lord.” On the other side we recognize
the magi, following yonder
star to bring their gifts to the newborn
King of the Jews.
Soon after Nathanael moves into
the renovated area formerly occupied
by Sentinel Printing, he hopes to offer
workshops on the prayerful painting
of icons and to make his own icons
available for purchase. +
Lee Hanley
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 5

SESQUICENTENNIAL
The cupola of the Sacred Heart Chapel
of Saint Benedict’s Monastery
page 6 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
The monastic women of the
Order of Saint Benedict, Saint
Benedict’s Monastery, St.
Joseph, Minnesota, are celebrating
their Sesquicentennial in 2007. Their
history is a fascinating journey that
compliments and contrasts that of the
monastic men of Saint John’s Abbey.
This Benedictine community traces
its roots to Saint Walburg Abbey
in Eichstätt, Bavaria, a women’s
monastery dating to the eleventh
century. In 1852 at the invitation of
Benedictine men, three young nuns,
Sisters Benedicta Riepp, Walburga
Dietrich and Maura Flieger, left for
Pennsylvania to teach children of
German immigrants on the American
frontier.
In 1857 four Sisters, two candidates
and a twelve-year-old orphan
girl arrived in St. Cloud expecting to
teach in an elementary school. When
this plan did not materialize, they supported
themselves by teaching music,
art and needlework, hardly imagining
the hardship, poverty and challenges
awaiting them. Neither could they
have foreseen that what began so
The Schola of Sisters, novices and postulants
of Saint Benedict’s Monastery sing from the
balcony of the Sacred Heart Chapel.
Saint Benedict’s
Monastery
celebrates
Sesquicentennial
by Brenda Brown
Benedictine Sisters arrived in St. Cloud on July 4, 1857.
All photos from Monastery Archives
precariously would grow into a community
of 1,278 members by 1946.
“ How much the Sisters are needed
here. There are girls 15 years old
who still do not know the alphabet
nor the Ten Commandments,
not even the Our Father.”
(from an 1857 letter of Sister
Evangelista Kremeter, OSB, to
Abbot Boniface Wimmer, OSB)
Moving to the settlement of St.
Joseph in 1863, the Sisters began
teaching in the parish elementary
school. Soon they recognized the
need for women’s higher education
and opened Saint Benedict’s Academy
that continued as Saint Benedict’s
High School until 1970.
By 1913 the Sisters founded a
two-year college that became a fouryear
accredited liberal arts college in
1933. Other higher education initiatives
include the St. Cloud School
of Nursing and the formation of the
Benedictine Institute of Theology
that evolved into Saint John’s School
of Theology. Since 1857 more than
1,600 Sisters have taught in 163
elementary and secondary schools.

“ Care of the sick must rank above
and before all else, so that they
may truly be served as Christ, for
he said: I was sick and you visited
me (Matt 25:36).” (Rule of
Saint Benedict, chapter 36)
Although none of the Sisters was
trained in nursing, when they were
asked to open a hospital in St. Cloud
in 1885, they responded quickly. In
time they opened six hospitals, nine
homes for the elderly, three schools of
nursing as well as x-ray and medical
technology programs.
In 1964 the Sisters gifted the St.
Cloud Hospital to the civic community.
They remain involved with the St.
Cloud Hospital, the Queen of Peace
Hospital in New Prague, Minnesota,
and in homes for the elderly where
they serve as board members, in nursing
and chaplaincy services and in
advocacy for the uninsured through
Catholic Charities’ Project Health
Education Access Line (H.E.A.L.).
“ Benedicta Riepp had a dream . . .
a large tree covered with beautiful
white blossoms. She took the
tree as a symbol of her future
community.” (Abbess Augusta
Eighteen novices of Saint Benedict’s Monastery
at Saint Benedict’s
Monastery, 1957).
After only ten years in
the United States, this
Benedictine community
had established six independent
monasteries in
the United States. In
time sister monasteries
were founded in Japan,
Taiwan, Puerto Rico, the
Bahamas and Utah.
This international
character enriches each
monastic community as
all remain connected in
love and mutual support.
Today the Sisters are asked to assist
in the theological and spiritual formation
of African and Chinese women
religious as well as lay ecumenical
communities.
“ We changed our focus of serving
the urgent needs of a pioneer
American culture to becoming a
spiritual center to nurture society’s
spiritual longings.” (Mother
Henrita Osendorf, OSB, 1963)
SESQUICENTENNIAL
The monastic community in procession
As dedicated laity took up the ministries
of education and health care,
the Sisters moved into working as
pastoral associates, faith formation
directors and youth ministers, heads
of diocesan offices and social service
agencies. The growing interest in
prayer and spirituality led the Sisters
to begin a spirituality center at the
monastery in the 1970s. Two recent
outreach efforts are a retreat program
for rural women and the Sophia
Program for lay women in church
ministry.
“ When I came to the monastery I
felt here a longstanding love of
art.” (Thomas Carey, OSB)
Sister Willibalda Scherbauer, first
Minnesota prioress and graduate of
the Royal Art School in Munich,
Germany, taught needlework to the
younger Sisters as they struggled
to provide income for the community.
In 1867 the monastery opened
the Art Needlework and Vestment
Department known throughout the
world for the Sisters’ exceptional skill
in creating beautiful vestments.
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 7

SESQUICENTENNIAL
Supporters of the arts, the Sisters
built the Benedicta Arts Center at
the College of Saint Benedict. Here
students and area residents enjoy a
rich variety of art exhibits, dance and
musical performances and theatre productions.
The Art and Heritage Place, constructed
in 2000, is a venue to share
the Sisters’ rich history and arts. At
the Whitby Gift Shop and Gallery,
the public may view and purchase
works created by the Sisters and other
local artists. Displays in the Haehn
Museum capture the cultural, social
and religious influence the Sisters
have always had. In the nearby
Artisan Studies, Sisters and local artists
ply a variety of arts and crafts.
“If you want peace, work for justice.”
(Pope Paul VI)
Membership in Christ means taking
responsibility for all who deserve to
live in a just and peaceful world. The
Sisters take this trust seriously. The
World Justice/New Jubilee Committee
disseminates information and spearheads
action to promote equity and
peace at local, regional and national
levels. They advocate for the marginalized,
the threatened and the poor by
page 8 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
involvement in groups including Pax
Christi, Habitat for Humanity, Bread
for the World and the Great River
Interfaith Partnership (GRIP).
INTO THE FUTURE
No one can see the future clearly,
yet its seeds lie hidden in the present.
Unforeseen challenges and fresh possibilities
will call for a response. Like
the Sisters who went before them,
the Sesquicentennial Community of
the Monastery of Saint Benedict will
answer, discovering new ways of
being Christ for others in the still-tobe-imagined
ways of living community,
prayer and work. +
“Sing to the Lord a new song” (Psalm 149:1).
Students and teacher of St. Joseph’s Grade
School, St. Joseph, Minnesota
This article is a collaborative effort
coordinated by Brenda Brown, communications
specialist for Saint Benedict’s
Monastery.
A Benedictine Sister (background) with
doctors and nurses at a surgery in the
St. Cloud Hospital

Black Hills spruce trees from the Happy
Land Tree Farm, Sandstone, Minnesota,
line the north side of the Guesthouse.
Abbey Guesthouse
dedicated
October 22
“This facility is a dream come true for us” (Abbot John Klassen, OSB).
A
dream of some eight decades
finally came true on a windy,
chilly October afternoon
when the new Abbey Guesthouse was
dedicated and blessed by Abbot John
in the presence of several hundred
monks and guests.
The first talk of a guesthouse surfaced
in 1921, after the completion
of Benet Hall, a five-storey student
residence. Newly elected Abbot
Alcuin Deutsch, OSB (1921-50),
felt it was time to build a guesthouse,
but the construction or renovation of
such facilities as auditorium, library,
football field, gymnasium and utility
shops took precedence.
Abbot Jerome Theisen, OSB
(1979-92), revived serious interest in
an expanded monastic guest apostolate
when he wrote early in 1992,
“. . . many monks of Saint John’s
desire to provide more adequate guest
facilities.” The proposal was tabled
when Jerome was elected Abbot
Primate of the worldwide Benedictine
Order and he moved to headquarters
in Rome. His successor, Abbot
Timothy Kelly, OSB (1992-2000),
brought the dream closer to reality in
1998 when he appointed the Abbey
Guesthouse Program Committee. The
following year the monastic commu-
Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB
nity approved both the report of the
committee and a resolution to proceed
with the selection of an architect.
Due to high cost projections, the
community rejected the initial design
by the Tadao Ando Architects and
Associates of Japan and engaged
the firm of Vincent James Architect
Associates of Minneapolis. The conceptual
designs were approved and
groundbreaking occurred on May 12,
2005.
Vincent James, Guesthouse
architect
The dedication ceremony included
musical selections by the abbey schola,
brief remarks by Steve Slaggie
(he, his wife Barbara and their family
are lead donors of the project) and
FEATURE
architect Vincent James, a Scripture
reading (Romans 12:4-13) by Sandy
Klas, Mendota Heights, Minnesota,
one of the Patron benefactors of the
Guesthouse, followed by the homily
of Abbot John. He developed St.
Paul’s exhortation to “Rejoice in
hope, endure in affliction, persevere
in prayer. Contribute to the needs of
the holy ones, exercise hospitality.”
Abbot John’s Homily
With a group of ten graduate students
I spent the spring of 1975
in Jerusalem, studying the land and
the culture that produced the scriptures.
As part of our learning, we
shopped for food in the Arab area of
the Old City. The streets were lined
with small shops that sold everything.
Like Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery in
Lake Wobegon, if you couldn’t find it
there, you probably didn’t need it.
If we happened to be there in the
morning, it was not uncommon to
hear, “You are the first customer, for
you I have special deal.” At first we
responded to this invitation rather
cynically, but gradually we realized
that these words were genuine. These
small businesses were run at a subsistence
level, and a family depended on
this commerce for its living. The first
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 99
Lee Hanley

Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB
FEATURE
Abbot John gives homily at the blessing
of the Guesthouse.
sale of the day was like the first run
in the World Series.
Each one of us had the experience
of searching out wooden carvings or
other goods. If one happened to be
at the shop close to tea time in the
morning or afternoon, in the middle
of negotiating the price, the merchant
would say, “Let us stop and have
some tea.” So tea, hotter than blazes,
and a cookie or sweet, conversation
about family, then back to negotiation.
At first we mistook this interlude
as part of the business shtick, but
again we gradually realized that the
hospitality was genuine, that it was
part of the culture. These simple acts
of kindness took us out of a framework
of a wheeler-dealer relationship,
into a human connection.
If ever our world needed a renewed
sense of hospitality it is right now; a
time when there is so much mistrust,
so much polarization, so much shouting
based not on real thought but on
ideology. Hospitality, like love and
grace, is in the details. It is never an
abstraction.
page 10 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB
A bathroom, a cup of coffee or tea;
a place to gather oneself; to read, to
think; a community to be silent with,
to join in prayer and song; a listening
ear and heart. Hospitality bypasses
ideology, simply drives around it, and
attends to human needs for rest, creativity
and renewal.
In this reading from Paul’s Letter
to the Romans he closes the passage
with the exhortation, “Exercise hospitality.”
All of the previous lines in that
passage provide the basis for hospitality:
Love one another with mutual
affection. Anticipate one another in
showing honor. Rejoice in hope . . .
It is our deep hope that this Abbey
Guesthouse will be a place of spiritual
renewal, a place of rejoicing in friendship
and family, a place of thoughtful
and creative deliberation, a place of
rest and solitude for all who come. If
so, we will surely know the meaning
of Clement of Alexandria’s wonderful
phrase, “You are saved by faith and
by hospitality.” +
Abbot Jerome Theisen, OSB,
Guesthouse Program Endowment
To recognize his important contribution
to the Guesthouse
project, Saint John’s Abbey has
established an endowment in Abbot
Steve and Barbara Slaggie, lead donors
for the Guesthouse
Abbot Jerome Theisen, OSB
Abbey Archives
Jerome Theisen’s name to support
Guesthouse programs. The funding
goal of this endowment is $2 million.
Elected abbot in 1979, Jerome was
convinced that the abbey should have
a facility to accommodate guests of
Saint John’s and provide a place of
respite for persons seeking solitude
in a prayerful environment. After
his election as Abbot Primate and his
move to Rome, his vision was taken
up by his successors, Abbot Timothy
Kelly, OSB, and Abbot John
Klassen, OSB.
The monastic community is determined
to make the Guesthouse
affordable to all who come. This
endowment will support retreat
and spiritual life programs on subjects
of a spiritual, pastoral and
monastic nature. To support these
programs, please send your gift
to: Abbot Jerome Theisen, OSB,
Guesthouse Endowment Fund
/ Abbey Development, P.O. Box
2015 / Collegeville, Minnesota
56321. +

Lee Hanley
A view of
Lake Sagatagan from
the Guesthouse
The south side of the
Guesthouse
The south terrace of the Guesthouse
Lee Hanley
FEATURE
Daniel Durken, OSB
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 11

Metten Abbey
SESQUICENTENNIAL
We often think that history
runs in a linear way,
always upwards. But the
1200-year history of Saint Michael’s
Abbey in Bavaria comes in chunks of
time with powerful interruptions. The
monastery burned down in the Middle
Ages. Then came the sixteenth-century
Protestant Reformation followed
by the Thirty Years War (1618-48)
when there were only fi ve monks in
the house. In 1624 those fi ve decided
to build a new monastery for twenty
people. This trust in the future supported
the generations to come.
The teeming life of the monastery
was extinguished in 1803 by King
Maximilian Josef I of Bavaria. The
twenty-three monks of Metten were
driven away, their furniture sold to
the neighboring Duke of Offenberg
and parceled out to hotels. In 1826
the Duke gave the furnishings back
to King Ludwig I, Maximilian’s son,
who then decided to refound the
monastery.
There were only two monks
left to hand on the baton. But in
1832 Boniface Wimmer and four
others joined the Metten community.
Monastic life got a fresh start.
Boniface was born in 1809, the son
page 12 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
Abbot Wolfgang Hagl, OSB, in the library of
Metten Abbey, Bavaria
Abbot Wolfgang
Hagl, OSB, of Metten,
Bavaria, recalls the
early days of Boniface
Wimmer, OSB
translated by Mark Thamert, OSB
Part II of Abbot Wolfgang’s Sesquicentennial refl ections
of an innkeeper as were several others
who entered with him or after him.
Such young men had to learn from
childhood how to interact with others.
Boniface had been ordained for the
Diocese of Ratisbon. He was always
enthusiastic about the Order of Saint
Benedict. He saw it as a powerful
crystallization of Western culture with
its withdrawal from the world for
prayer as well as a stable life in a particular
place among particular people.
After ten years of helping restore
other Bavarian monasteries, Boniface
read an article in the Augsburg newspaper
about the Bavarian emigrants in
America. Sparks went off inside him.
He wrote an article in the Augsburg
paper about the establishment of communities
of faith in America and then
decided to be one of the first to try it.
The Metten community was divided
by this issue. But Boniface was
really a stubborn, pig-headed man and
he prevailed. His idea was to found
not individual parishes but rather
stable, viable abbeys in Pennsylvania,
Minnesota and Kansas. From these
stable communities parishes could be
founded and managed.
History like this teaches us to be
detached and calm with regard to
the present. It gives us, in this faithfilled
perspective, the sense that we
will not fall from the hands of God.
Our life will continue, perhaps not as
we imagine, but things will continue.
Boniface teaches us to be open to new
challenges. +
Abbot Wolfgang will conclude his
reflections in the spring 2007 issue of
The Abbey Banner. Mark Thamert,
OSB, teaches German at Saint John’s
University.
Stained glass image of Boniface
Wimmer, Metten Abbey
Metten Abbey

Metten Abbey
Metten Abbey
Saint John’s Abbey Archives
In this choir chapel the monks of Metten Abbey
pray the Divine Office.
The sacristy of Metten Abbey
The library of Metten Abbey
Boniface Wimmer, OSB
SESQUICENTENNIAL
The high altar and sanctuary of Metten Abbey,
Bavaria
Metten Abbey
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 13
Metten Abbey

Fran Hoefgen, OSB
FEATURE
O
n the shore of the lake
there stands a small chapel—Stella
Maris—built by
the monks in honor of the Mother
of God. It was a sunset picture
so exquisite that one could not
imagine anything more perfect.
I found myself transported back
when the sons of Saint Benedict
penetrated into the wilderness, cut
down forests, founded monasteries,
enkindled everywhere the light
of faith and gave Europe civilization.”
(From an 1880 description by
Dr. Herman Zschokke, chaplain of the
Austrian imperial court and later rector
of the University of Vienna)
The Stella Maris Chapel history
begins with Dr. James Aylward,
English teacher at Saint John’s
from1867-69. On the south shore
of Lake Sagatagan there was a small
island. Legend has it that Aylward
caught a thirty-pound fish off the
point of the island. He was so excited
that he dropped his spectacles into the
page 14 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
lake and never recovered them. The
students dubbed the place “Doctor’s
Island” in his honor.
Inspired by this picturesque setting,
young monks during the summer
of 1872 decided to build a chapel to
honor Mary under the title of Stella
Maris (Star of the Sea). On July
11, 1872, Vincent Schiffrer, OSB,
architect of the structure, laid the
cornerstone for a small Gothic style
building.
By the end of that month the
16’ x 12’ structure was completed,
adorned with ornamental brick
and a wooden spire with Stella
Maris painted in white. The
interior of the chapel was not
completed and no services
were held in it.
The chapel is finished
in 1889.
In 1889 the monks
finished the chapel,
laying the floor,
A winter view of the Stella Maris Chapel
The Stella Maris
Chapel is built,
burned, rebuilt,
renovated and
soon to be
restored
by David Klingeman, OSB
The chapel’s history includes a thirty-pound fish and a ghost story.
plastering and decorating the walls
with religious pictures and erecting
a small altar. Since the island was
nearly inaccessible by foot, a path
was made in 1892 following the lake
shore to “Chapel Island,” as the site
was renamed.
The chapel survived the tornado of
1894 but it was struck by lightning
on April 17, 1903, and burned
to the ground. For eleven years
nothing remained except the foundation
and underbrush.
A larger chapel is completed
in 1915.
In 1915 the abbey’s young
monks completed a new,
larger Romanesque
style Stella Maris
Chapel designed
by Gilbert
Winkelmann, OSB,
with a wooden altar,
Students pose on the
steeple of the first Stella
Maris Chapel, circa
1889.

Abbey Archives
a steeple and a statue of the Blessed
Mother. Abbot Peter Engel, OSB,
blessed and laid the cornerstone for
the chapel on June 13, 1915. The
planned bell in the tower and a fountain
with benches for rest and meditation
were never completed.
Over the years the little meditation
chapel suffered from neglect and
vandalism. In 1943, under the direction
of Cloud Meinberg, OSB, the
stolen cornerstone was replaced and
the walls were given new strength
by the addition of buttresses. That
summer monks fashioned stained
glass windows and Father Cloud
sketched a painting of the Blessed
Virgin on the wall that has since
faded and disappeared.
In 1989 a new roof was added, general
brick and wall repair completed,
paint applied and a new altar erected.
The chapel, now not so much a place
of pilgrimage, is more of a destination
for a walk. Occasionally a Mass is
celebrated at the chapel for a special
group.
A renovation project is underway.
A project is now underway to
restore the pilgrimage aspect of the
A monk wonders
when the rebuilding
of the Stella Maris
Chapel, circa 1915,
will be completed.
chapel. Don Hall, a 1955 alumnus
of Saint John’s Preparatory School,
recently made a pilgrimage to Stella
Maris. His observation was perhaps
similar to that of many visitors: “I
expected more.” What appears as a
jewel from afar fails to inspire the
visitor upon arrival.
It became Don’s vision to make a
pilgrimage to the chapel as inspiring
as the view of Stella Maris from
across the lake. Don has teamed
up with noted architect, Ed Sovik
of Northfield, Minnesota, to make
improvements to the chapel in time
for the 150 th anniversary of the
Prep School’s first day of school—
November 10, 2007. This generous
benefactor’s plan is to make the renovated
Stella Maris Chapel the Prep
School’s gift to the broader Saint
John’s community.
Architect Sovik has proposed a
number of exterior and interior treatments
that will enhance the structure
while preserving its integrity.
Tom Kroll, director of Saint John’s
Arboretum, and Linus Ascheman,
OSB, physical plant director, are collaborating
with the architect. Kroll
plans to enhance the trail leading to
FEATURE
the chapel and do some landscaping
to further frame the finished project.
A tragic drowning evolves into a
ghost story.
A story closely associated with the
chapel concerns the tragic drowning
of the twenty-three-year old monk,
Anselm Bartholmy, OSB, on July 3,
1890. Frater Anselm and a student,
John Nelles (later ordained as Father
Felix, OSB), were transporting sod
across the lake to landscape the
ground around the chapel.
The boat started to leak and soon
sank under the weight of the wet
sod about one hundred yards from
the chapel shore. Both men could
swim but Anselm was hampered by
the weight of his monastic habit.
Grabbing hold of Nelles, Anselm
pulled him down. In the underwater
struggle Nelles managed to free
himself but could not rescue Anselm
whose body was found after a twentyfour
hour search.
Over the years the facts of this tragedy
became a ghost story embellished
by a monastic storyteller. The legend
has the monks taking a bell to install
in the chapel. That is why there is
still no bell in the tower. But on a
quiet night the tolling of the bell can
be heard along with the mysterious
splashing of water and cries for help.
This is the stuff of a vivid imagination
and is as farfetched as Dr. Aylward’s
catching a thirty-pound fish from the
lake.
Stella Maris Chapel is the first
Marian shrine of the Saint Cloud
Diocese. It continues to inspire us
today as a place of beauty, contemplation,
devotion and legends just as it
has for over ninety years. +
David Klingeman, OSB, is the archivist
of Saint John’s Abbey and the manager of
the new Abbey Guesthouse.
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 15

Lee Hanley
FEATURE
At the suggestion of his confrere,
Timothy Backous,
OSB, who told him he needed
a hobby to rub off the rough edges of
his personality, Paul Richards, OSB,
set up an aquarium in his room. He
quickly discovered that taking care of
a few free and easy fish was a remedy
for his tendency to always be doing
something.
Brother Paul also learned that his
new hobby has a medicinal quality.
Subject to high blood pressure, he
found that thirty minutes of watching
his fish swimming leisurely in their
pool considerably lowers his blood
pressure. He also claims that his seventy-five-gallon
aquarium, stocked
with a colorful array of non-aggressive
fresh water fish, has kept him
from smoking.
When Paul introduced several
African cichlid fish to his peaceful
“community” fish, the larger fish
started eating the smaller ones. For
expert advice he consulted Peter
Sullivan, OSB, who managed a pet
store in Troy, New York, before entering
the community. A new seventyfive-gallon
aquarium was put together
in the recreation room of the junior
page 16 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
and novice monks thanks to the
cooperative efforts of the following
confreres:
JP Earls, OSB, director of formation,
gave permission for the inexpensive,
do-it-ourselves project. Paul
obtained a used tank and other necessary
equipment. Cletus Connors,
OSB, and Matthew Luft, OSB,
pastors of Saint Boniface Church in
Cold Spring, contributed rocks from
the local granite company. Neal
Laloo, OSB, added pieces of his pot-
Prescription for
lowering blood
pressure: get an
aquarium.
by Daniel Durken, OSB
“No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish” (John Ruskin).
Lee Hanley
Peter Sullivan, OSB, watches small fish amid the
large clay pots made by Neal Laloo, OSB.
tery to give the aquarium its unique
appearance. Christopher Fair, OSB,
made a mirror for the aquarium so
the fish could displace their aggression
by attacking their own images.
Paul-Vincent Niebauer, OSB, and
Peter assembled the stand on which
the aquarium rests. From old monastic
habit fabric Peregrine Rinderknecht,
OSB, fashioned the skirt around the
bottom of the tank.
Peter, primary caretaker of the new
aquarium, had an early love for ani-
The eight-gallon BiOrb Aquarium
Kit of Bruce Wollmering, OSB

mals. In junior high school when his
parents gave him the option of getting
a computer or an aquarium, he chose
a fish tank. He agrees with Paul that
it is relaxing as well as challenging to
have a piece of the underwater world
in one’s living room.
Contrary to the popular belief that
pet fish need little care (you don’t
have to housetrain fish, take them for
a run or a walk, give them a bath or
follow them around with a pooper
scooper) an aquarium needs considerable
attention. Customers became
upset when Peter told them just how
much care a tank of fish really needs.
For example:
Since fish, as Peter puts it, “swim
in their own toilet” and their ammonia-heavy
excrement is extremely
toxic, the sides and bottom of the tank
should be cleaned weekly. Proper diet
and stable environment for the fish
are also important. New fish must be
carefully chosen and introduced to the
tank.
The fish in the formation aquarium
include a yellow fin Borlei, two blue
peacocks and one electric yellow
cichlid. The tank’s live plants, a java
fern and the anubia nana, convert the
ammonia to less toxic nitrate.
Lee Hanley
Some of the fish in the aquarium of Paul Richards, OSB
Bruce Wollmering, OSB, has an
eight-gallon BiOrb Aquarium Kit with
a unique filtration system that cleans
the water by itself. An air pump and
filter are hidden in the base of the
globe-shaped bowl that gives fish
about ten times more space than a
traditional bowl. Changing the filter
every month or two means that the
tank does not have to be emptied.
The eighteen fish in his aquarium
include the leopard (spotted) and
zebra (striped) danio, the neon,
cardinal and red-finned tetras, the
Harlequin Rasbora and ghost shrimp
to help clean the tank.
Father Bruce also manages the
outdoor pond of comet goldfish at
FEATURE
the southwest corner of the monastic
garden. From mid-May to mid-
October the fish frolic in the pool that
is protected by water lilies, wild calla
lilies and water iris. During the cold
seasons the fish are placed in two
sixty-five gallon cattle water tanks in
the root cellar where they hibernate
without light or food in thirty-eight
degree water with a constant supply
of oxygen.
There are, of course, more fish at
Saint John’s than those confined to
aquariums. Lakes Sagatagan, Stumpf
and Gemini offer wider, deeper space
for perch, sunfish, crappies, bass
and an occasional northern pike. To
catch them is to fulfill the ancient
Babylonian proverb, “The gods do
not deduct from man’s allotted span
the hours spent in fishing.” +
Daniel Durken is the senior editor for
Liturgical Press and the founding editor
of The Abbey Banner.
A portion of the goldfish pool in the southwest corner
of the monastic garden
Lee Hanley
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 17

Fran Hoefgen, OSB
THE ABBEY CHRONICLE
Temperatures in the 90s were
recorded on three days in May,
two in June and twelve in July
plus a sizzling 101 on the last day
of July. Rain was scarce in May and
July and produced drought conditions.
Plentiful precipitation in August and
September kept lawns green and trees
clapped their hands in relief. The first
frost on October 10 followed by two
days of premature snow flurries with
a nine-degree wind chill were signals
that winter was getting impatient.
August 2006
One of Jerome’s Road to
Compostella paintings
■ In August and September, Jerome
Tupa, OSB, artist-in-residence,
displayed his The Road to Compostella
pieces in Saint
John’s art galleries.
Father Jerome’s oil
Jerome’s painting of
“Assisi, the Basilica
of St. Francis” on
the cover of America
magazine
page 18 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
painting of “Assisi, the Basilica
of St. Francis” appeared on the
October 23 issue of America magazine,
the national Catholic weekly
published by the Jesuits. Jerome’s
art works are described as “boldly
original and undeniably modern,
opulent, lyrical and vibrant.”
■ On August
20, Dan
Morgan,
OSB,
celebrated
his 26 th
birthday
by catching
a fiveand-a-half
pound bass
on Lake
Swenson,
near Emily, Minnesota, where the
abbey has a lake home. In June,
Roger Botz, OSB, had good luck
fishing for walleyes on Kayedon
Lake in
Northeast
Ontario,
Canada.
Roger Botz,
OSB, and a
catch of four
Canadian
walleyes
Dan Morgan, OSB,
and his big bass
A frosty morning at Saint John’s
“Snow is what you are up to your neck in
when people send you post cards from Florida
saying they wish you were there” (Ogden
Nash, “Jangle Bells”).
What’s Up?
The Abbey Chronicle
by Daniel Durken, OSB
Thomas Gillespie, OSB
Roger Young
■ The Saint John’s 2006-2007 academic
year began in the final
weeks of August. Saint John’s
Preparatory
School
reached a 38yearenrollment
high of
328 students
including 68
international
students from
fourteen
countries and
nine from
states other
than Minnesota.
There are 2,027
students at the
College of Saint
Benedict and 1,886 at Saint John’s
University for a combined enrollment
of 3,913. The School of
Theology•Seminary has a fouryear
high enrollment of 135 students.
September 2006
Saint John’s
welcomes new
and returning
students.
■ In a September 9 th memo, Abbot
John described current planning
for the staffing of parishes by
Benedictines in the Saint Cloud
Diocese. He first expressed his
gratitude “for the stellar, unceasing
pastoral care that our confreres
Daniel Durken, OSB

in parishes and chaplaincies do
every day as they carry on the
oldest ‘mission’ of the abbey.”
The clustering of parishes and
nursing homes now staffed by
Benedictines is being considered.
The abbey approved the relinquishment
of Saint Augustine’s
Parish, Saint Cloud, to the Saint
Cloud Diocese on June 30, 2007.
■ On September 13 Abbot John
spoke to about one hundred faculty
and staff members on sexual abuse
issues in which the abbey has been
involved. He described the care
given to survivors of sexual abuse
by members of the abbey; outlined
the membership and work of the
External Review Board which
meets monthly to assure the protection
of children and vulnerable
adults; and presented the abbey’s
policies for the rehabilitation of
offenders.
■ September
23 was
designated
Health
Saturday
Morning for
the community.
Designed by
Subprior
Paul
Richards,
OSB, the
program
included
two presentations:
Judith
Welter, direc-
Sleep habits were discussed
at the Health
Saturday Morning.
tor of Saint Raphael’s Retirement
Center, spoke about new directions
in the care of elderly confreres and
stressed that the Center is not a
place to die but a place to live and
help residents be as independent
as possible. Jennifer Herberg from
the Saint Cloud Hospital Sleep
Center discussed the basics of
good sleep hygiene which include
going to bed only when feeling
drowsy, maintaining a regular
wake-up time, avoiding daytime
napping as well as caffeine and
alcoholic drinks within four to six
hours of bedtime.
■ Robert Koopmann, OSB, professor
of music, on September 27
presented a check for $1,500 from
the abbey and the Saint John’s
Benedictine Volunteer Corps to
the non-profit Books for Africa
organization whose mission is to
“end the book famine in Africa”
by sending textbooks to seven
African countries.
■ Heritage Day: Celebrating our
Community and the Common
Good, a Sesquicentennial event
of the university,
was held
September 27.
Following an
ecumenical
prayer service,
the church-filled
audience heard
an inspiring talk
by Jim Wallis,
author of God’s
Politics: Why the
Jim Wallis, keynote
speaker on
Heritage Day
Right Gets It Wrong and the Left
Doesn’t Get It. Wallis challenged
the audience to let the light of
Catholic social thought shine and
said, “We’ve got mountains to
move and faith is the only thing
that can move those mountains.”
New York Times bestseller,
God’s Politics, by Jim Wallis
THE ABBEY CHRONICLE
■ A Special Sesquicentennial
Homecoming Event on September
29 included choral and instrumental
music performed by monks,
university students and faculty
in an awesome array of musical
groups including the Abbey
Schola, Brass Ensemble, Campus
Singers, Chamber Choir, Men’s
Chorus, Amadeus Chamber
Symphony, Handbell Ringers
of Saint Boniface Church, Cold
Spring, and organ soloist Kim
Kasling. One of the selections
was Fanfare for Brass Quintet,
composed by Jerome Coller,
OSB.
October 2006
■ Early this month major modifications
to the power house were
completed to increase the efficiency
of the operation and achieve
better pollution control. The most
visible change was the installation
of a “Bag House” on the
west exterior of the building. The
installation of some 250 sixteenfoot
bags will filter out pollutants
from the boiler exhaust. Interior
changes were made on one of the
boilers and early tests indicate a
seventeen percent increase in
efficiency.
Daniel Durken, OSB
The “Bag House” that filters out
pollutants from the boiler exhaust
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 19

THE ABBEY CHRONICLE
The 2005 Collegeville Colors
commemorative artwork by Sophia
Heymans
■ Saint John’s Preparatory School
sponsored two successful October
events: the Collegeville Colors
festival on October 1 and the
Black Forest Octoberfest Gasthaus
on the 6 th and 7 th . Perfect fall
weather brought more than a
thousand visitors to stroll the
wooded path to the Stella Maris
Chapel.
■ The Oktoberfest Gasthaus is an
authentic imitation of Europe’s
largest and most famous folk festival
in Munich. Two Austrian
chefs prepared such favorite cuisine
as Rostbraten, Wienerschnitzl
and Apfelstrudel.
■ Magnus Wenninger, OSB,
was honored on October 6
by three of his former students
at Saint Augustine’s
College, Nassau, Bahamas,
and by members of Colina-
Imperial Ltd., of that city on
the occasion of the sixtieth
anniversary of his arrival in
the Bahamas and the twentyfifth
anniversary of his return Father Magnus helps students
construct a polyhedron.
to Saint John’s Abbey. Father
Magnus has a world-wide
reputation as the author of several
books on how to use paper for
page 20 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
making polyhedron
and spherical models.
■ The world premiere
performance of
the commissioned
opera The Star
Gatherer, commemorating
the
twenty-fifth anniversary
of the Saint
John’s Boys’ Choir,
was presented at Saint John’s on
October 20 and 21. With music
by Stephen Paulus, libretto by
Gene Scheer, the production’s
design inspired by the painting
of Jerome Tupa, OSB, and
conducted by Paul Richards,
OSB, the opera focuses on the
youthful transition from boyhood
to young adulthood through the
boys’ awareness that they will be
defined not by what they have but
by what they give away. Three
full-house performances superbly
showcased the remarkable talents
of the Boys’ Choir.
■ Thanks to the summer gardening
efforts of Bruce Wollmering,
director, and Linus Ascheman,
Fintan Bromenshenkel, Isaac
Connolly, Dunstan Moorse,
Raphael Olson, Paul Richards
and Kelly Ryan, abbey meals
The Saint John’s Boys’ Choir in the world
premiere of The Star Gatherer
never lacked garden-fresh vegetables.
The mid-October inventory
of abbey produce includes this
partial list (in pounds): tomatoes:
1,029; corn: 145; cucumbers: 305;
watermelon: 491; cantaloupe: 105;
squash: 1,186; golden and green
beans: 66.
■ “No Winter lasts forever,” wrote
the poet Hal Borland. As proof of
that, on a mid-October afternoon
Master Gardener John Elton and
Novices Nickolas Becker and
Dan Morgan planted five hundred
daffodil bulbs. +
St. Cloud Times/Paul Middlestaedt

Peter Sullivan, OSB, and
Peregrine Rinderknecht,
OSB, profess fi rst
monastic vows
P
refacing the profession of vows
of two monks, Abbot John
Klassen remarked, “We do not
vow ourselves to an abstraction. We
vow ourselves to the living God, in
Christ, through the Spirit. These vows
are enfleshed in this community which
is also not an abstraction. Community
imposes its own limits upon us. The
Good News, however, is that in this
‘free embrace of limits’ we find true
freedom, rooted in the grace and call
of the Holy Spirit.”
In this context, Brothers Peter and
Peregrine made their commitment to
obedience, stability and the monastic
manner of life on September 14, the
feast of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross.
Peter Joseph Sullivan, 32, the
son of Anna and Joseph (deceased)
Sullivan of Mattituck, New York,
graduated from Muhlenberg College,
Allentown, Pennsylvania, with a major
in world religions. He earned the
Master’s degree in elementary education
at Dowling College in Oakdale,
New York, and taught for a time.
Peter began a landscaping business
and later managed a pet store. The
latter experience enabled him to build
an aquarium in an abbey recreation
room. (For details, see p. 16-17).
Abbot John Klassen, OSB,
Peregrine Rinderknecht, OSB,
Peter Sullivan, OSB, JP Earls, OSB
“Making a vow, whether to be married or live the monastic life,
is a ‘free embrace of limits’” (Abbot John).
Peter is now working in the university’s
campus ministry.
Peregrine Jakob Rinderknecht,
26, the son of Joseph and Gail
Rinderknecht of Shaker Heights,
Ohio, graduated from Valparaiso
University in Valparaiso, Indiana,
with majors in pastoral theology, history
and German. He spent summers
as a counselor and interfaith chaplain
at a Boy Scout camp and worked as a
cook and potter in an intentional community.
Peregrine completed the Master of
Arts degree in systematic theology
at Saint John’s School of Theology.
During his studies he converted from
the Lutheran tradition to Catholicism.
Peregrine is now engaged in administrative
duties and tutoring in the
School of Theology. +
Two Benedictine
candidates invested
Two candidates were received
into the abbey’s novitiate and
clothed in the monastic habit during
Morning Prayer on September 11.
Nickolas Becker, 30, the son of
Robert and Mary Becker of Wesley,
VOCATION NEWS
Iowa, has a Bachelor’s degree in history
from the University of Notre
Dame and a Master of Arts degree
in Catholic thought and life and a
Master of Divinity degree from St.
Meinrad Seminary. Ordained to the
priesthood for the Diocese of Sioux
City, Iowa, in 2002, Nickolas served
several parishes and taught theology
at Brian Cliff University in Sioux
City.
Dan Morgan, 26, the son of
Bernie and Mona Morgan of Savage,
Minnesota, is a 2003 graduate of
Saint John’s University with a major
in computer science. He was a fouryear
member of the swim team. For
three and a half years he worked in
computer companies and was the general
manager of Tecnavia, the United
States branch of a Swiss company. +
Left to right: JP Earls, OSB, director of
formation, Nickolas Becker, OSB, Dan
Morgan, OSB
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 21

FEATURE
New books by monks
“When I get hold of a book I particularly admire, I am so enthusiastic
that I loan it to some one who never brings it back” (Edgar Watson Howe).
Given the primacy Saint Benedict
puts on daily public and
private reading, the writing
and publishing of books are as basic
to monastic life as the rhythm of worship
and work. Eighty years ago the
monks of Saint John’s Abbey committed
themselves to the publishing
apostolate by establishing Liturgical
Press. These abbey members made
recent contributions to publishing:
Robert Koopmann, OSB, concert
pianist and professor of music, compiled
choral
music and
chant recorded
at Saint John’s
since 1939.
This CD
Voices from
Saint John’s:
A Sesquicentennial Sampler features
rare recordings of the monks in the
old Abbey Church and recent selections
by the Abbey Schola, University
Men’s Chorus, Saint John’s Boys’
Choir, National Catholic Youth Choir
and College of Saint Benedict/Saint
John’s University Chamber Choir.
Michael Kwatera,
OSB, director of
liturgy and Oblates,
has written many
Liturgical Press titles
that include booklets
and videos for the
training of eucharistic
ministers, Mass servers and
deacons, the preparation of General
Intercessions, a student prayer book
page 22 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
(with Kate Ritger)
and Homily Hints
for the Loose-Leaf
Lectionary. His new
titles are Come to
the Feast: Liturgical
Theology of, by, and
for Everybody and To
Thank and Bless: Prayers at Meals
(with Dietrich Reinhart, OSB).
Kilian McDonnell,
OSB, founder of the
Collegeville Institute
for Ecumenical and
Cultural Research,
with fifteen theological
tomes to
his credit, turned to
writing poetry when he turned seventy-five.
His second book of poems
is Yahweh’s Other Shoe. He writes of
God cheating, walking with Sarah and
the silence of God. He reflects on his
life as a monk, frustrated at prayer,
growing old and searching for car “C”
in a dark parking lot.
Michael Patella,
OSB, associate
professor of New
Testament theology
and chair of the
committee for the
selection of illuminations
for The
Saint John’s Bible, writes a photo and
reflection feature of The Bible Today
and now authors the commentary on
the Gospel According to Luke in the
New Collegeville Bible Commentary
Series. A reviewer notes that “teach-
ers, preachers and the people in the
pews will reap a rich harvest from this
clearly written work.”
Kevin Seasoltz,
OSB, professor of
liturgy and editor
of Worship magazine,
has published
A Sense of the
Sacred: Theological
Foundations of
Christian Architecture and Art (New
York: Continuum). Back cover copy
states, “This near-encyclopedic record
of Western church worship spaces and
their adornment, a courageous synthesis
of critique and the theology of
faith on which it is based, will be used
as a point of reference for decades to
come.”
Placid Stuckenschneider, OSB,
an artist for Liturgical Press since the
mid-1950s,
has created
clip
art books,
book covers,
Sunday
bulletins
and designs for the renovation of
church sanctuaries. His color photos
appear in Listening to the Silence:
The Seasons of Grief, a tribute to the
deceased wife of Jim Blummer, owner
of Park Press Printing, Inc., and
Psalms to Nourish the Soul, Images to
Delight the Eye, the 2004 Christmas
book of Park Press.

Don Talafous,
OSB, professor
emeritus of theology
and alumni chaplain,
published Homilies
for Weekdays, Years
1 and 2, reflections
on the scripture readings
of the two-year Lectionary cycle.
These are down-to-earth meditations
by a seasoned and popular preacher
that reviewers call “a treasure of short
messages of hope in simple language
that moves the heart, appropriate for
personal reflection or as an aid to
those preaching daily.”
Hilary Thimmesh, OSB, president
emeritus and professor of English,
edited the Sesquicentennial book,
Saint John’s at 150. A portrait of this
place called Collegeville. Twelve
essays present topics on Saint John’s
first 150 years, from the missionary
lifestyle of the first monks to cameo
images of a few current college professors.
Numerous pictures, including
historic photos of the late nineteenth
century, are well worth the proverbial
thousand words apiece.
Jerome Tupa, OSB, student chaplain
and artist-in-residence, during a
pilgrimage through Italy in the summer
of 1999, sketched and painted
his way through ancient landscapes.
He captured
the essence
of some of
the world’s
most sacred
imagery.
The Road
to Rome
(New York:
Welcome Books) is the awesome collection
of his works in oil, watercolor,
pen, ink and pencil, along with reflections
from his travel journal. More
than sixty full-color illustrations make
this book as treasured as a brilliant
rainbow.
Arnold Weber,
OSB, teacher, coach,
retreat director, vocation
director and high
school administrator,
is best remembered
as the beloved pastor
of Holy Name of
Jesus Parish, Wayzata, Minnesota,
for twenty-three years. As a tribute to
his inspiring preaching, parishioners
collected Father Arnold’s Sunday
sermons in Homilies for the Active
Christian (St. Paul: Cabin Six Books).
“Through laughter, stories, tears and
challenges, Fr. Arnold led us to a
deeper love of Jesus” (Foreword).
FEATURE
Zachary
Wilberding, OSB,
assistant abbey guest
master, offers a
unique and practical
aspect to his Praying
the Rosary with
Scripture, namely, the
text in English, Spanish, Vietnamese
and Tagalog (Filipino). A scripture
reference and a short quotation preface
each mystery, including the new
Luminous Mysteries. This simple,
multi-lingual book is both an invitation
to contemplation and an inspiration
to closer discipleship.
The Seasoltz, Stuckenschneider,
Tupa and Weber books are available
from the Saint John’s Book Store at
www.csbsju.edu/bookstore or 1-800-
420-4509. The other titles are available
from Liturgical Press at www.
litpress.org or 1-800-858-5450 and
the Bookstore. +
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 23

Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB
FEATURE
page 24 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
Participants of the “Monks in the West” conference
assembled for a group picture.
Buddhist and
Catholic monks
dialogue on
celibacy
by William Skudlarek, OSB
The dialogue focused on three topics: theory, practice and therapy.
Bhante Dhammaratana, a Buddhist
monk from the Bhavana
Society in West Virginia,
arrived in Minneapolis early for the
“Monks in the West” conference at
Saint John’s Abbey. So after meeting
him at a small Sri Lankan Buddhist
monastery in North Minneapolis, we
drove to the airport to pick up some
of the other Buddhist and Catholic
participants for this interreligious
dialogue on celibacy.
As we approached the Lindberg terminal,
an illuminated sign informed
us that this was an “Orange Alert”
day. I looked at my passenger in his
burnt-orange robes and kidded, “Now
how do you suppose they found out
that a group of Buddhist monks was
arriving today?”
In October 2004, at the Monastery
of 10,000 Buddhas in northern
California, I participated in the first
meeting of “Monks in the West”—
monks of different religious traditions
living in North America who meet to
discuss issues of common concern.
We devoted two full days to shar-
Buddhist and Catholic monks discuss the theory, practice and therapy related to celibacy.
ing our personal spiritual journeys,
exploring our similarities and differences,
attending the Buddhist community’s
chanting services, meditating
together and enjoying superb Chinese
vegetarian cuisine.
Building on the trust established at
that first meeting, we resolved to meet
again in 2006 to reflect on “Authentic
Practices of Celibacy and Intimacy
in Religious Communities of Men.”
Twelve Buddhists from Arizona,
California, Indiana, Missouri, Ontario
and West Virginia joined ten Catholic
Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB

monks from Saint John’s Abbey
and seven other monasteries for this
three-day dialogue. Also participating
from Saint John’s were Abbot John
Klassen and Father JP Earls, OSB.
When the Rev. Heng Sure, a
Buddhist monk from Berkeley, and I
were asked to plan our second gathering,
we proposed that our dialogue be
focused on three topics: theory (why
we practice celibacy); practice (how
we actually live it out); and therapy
(how we deal with transgression).
Our conversations were engaging
and enlightening. In learning something
about another tradition, we
become more aware of our own—its
richness and its limitations. The
Catholic monks, for instance, came to
a deeper appreciation of Christianity’s
positive view of the body and of
creation in general. We also recognized
that Christianity is, in its very
essence, a religion that involves a
relationship with others and with the
Other. For that reason we always
speak of celibacy as an expression of
love for God and neighbor.
But Christianity can also learn from
the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition,
especially in the area of thought and
fantasy. For example, in one session
a monk from Shasta Buddhist Abbey
in California said that “the whole
thrust of training is not to give in to
desire that arises.” He described the
Buddhist method of accepting sexual
feelings without either acting on them
or repressing them, but just letting
them pass through. “The right use
of will is not will power but willingness—the
willingness to sit there and
let those feelings pass through,” he
said.
The Catholic response to sexual
thoughts and fantasies, on the other
hand, is that they must be resisted.
Meals were times for good food and further conversation.
But often resistance, rather than dissipating
a thought or fantasy, only
strengthens it.
The website of Monastic
Interreligious Dialogue www.
monasticdialogue.org contains a
fuller account of our discussions. We
explored the possibility of publishing
a book on what we learned about the
meaning and practice of celibacy in
our two traditions.
I had hoped that Monks in the West
would be the first group to use the
new Abbey Guesthouse, but that was
not possible because construction
was not complete. In retrospect, this
was a “happy fault.” All the visiting
monks were housed in the monastery,
joined us for common prayer, and
took breakfast and supper (which for
some consisted only of liquids) in the
monastic refectory. The midday vegan
meal—the only meal of the day for
some Buddhist monks—was planned
and superbly prepared by Brother
Isaac Connolly, OSB, and served in
the dining room of Emmaus Hall.
FEATURE
Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB
The Buddhist monks especially
expressed their deep appreciation for
being welcomed into our community.
As one of them commented, “I feel
gratitude and consider being here a
blessing. We have been so warmly
welcomed into this ancient, historical
community. The monastery and the
setting provide a willingness to share
one’s personal spiritual path.” +
William Skudlarek, OSB, is the executive
director of the Monastic Interreligious
Dialogue and the administrative assistant
to Abbot John Klassen.
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 25

David Paul Lange, OSB
VOCATION NEWS
Under the direction of Paul
Richards, OSB, the abbey’s
subprior, the Saint John’s
Benedictine Volunteer Corps began
its fourth year with the assignment of
five 2006 SJU graduates to Benedictine
schools in Tanzania, Rome and
Newark, New Jersey.
Nick Kleespie, Morris, Minnesota,
music major, and Timothy Serie,
Fridley, Minnesota, economics major,
are teaching English at the abbey
school of Hanga, Songea, Tanzania,
East Africa. They join Paul Conroy,
Monticello, Minnesota, 2005 English
major, who has extended his stay to
the end of this year to complete the
academic term.
Andrew Johnson, Lindstrom,
Minnesota, political science major,
is helping in the library and on
the grounds of the International
Benedictine College of Saint Anselm
in Rome.
Nick Briese, Rochester, Minnesota,
chemistry major, and David Sadder,
page 26 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
The new crew of the Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps:
First row, l. to r., David Sadder, Nick Kleespie
Top row, l. to r., Andrew Johnson, Tim Serie, Nick Briese
Five SJU ’06 alumni join
Saint John’s Benedictine
Volunteer Corps
Shoreview, Minnesota, political science
and sociology major, are doing
substitute teaching and tutoring at the
600-student Saint Benedict’s Prep in
Newark, New Jersey.
Each of these twenty-two-year-old
volunteers wants to experience a new
culture and new people and to help
others. Volunteers spend thirty to
forty hours a week at work and also
pray once or twice a day and eat at
least one meal a day with the monastic
community. Their food, lodging
and a small monthly stipend are provided
by the host community.
In early October, Nick Briese sent
Brother Paul “an unsolicited update
of what’s going on out here” at Saint
Benedict’s Prep. He wrote, “Dave
(Sadder) and I are each teaching a section
of the criminal justice course until
the regular teacher returns. It’s going
pretty well so far, and the kids are
slowly accepting me as a teacher.
“I broke up what was turning into
a scuffle before a punch was thrown
They go to serve in Tanzania, Rome
and New Jersey.
in one of my classes. The Johnnies
here went to the reception for The
Saint John’s Bible at the Museum
of Biblical Art and saw Brother
Dietrich Reinhart and Fathers
Eric Hollas, Columba Stewart and
Michael Patella. We really appreciated
the invitation. We are still going
to community prayer.”
Three of last year’s volunteers returned
to Saint John’s in mid-August
to help initiate the new men and
describe their year of service to the
monastic community. Mark Hoffman,
who spent the year in Rome,
called it a really great experience living
with students from forty different
countries. One of the year’s highlights
was the visit of Pope Benedict
XVI to the school. Andrew Dirksen
and Michael Hahn showed a video
about Saint Benedict’s Prep where
ninety-five percent of the graduates go
on to college with five of them now
enrolled at Saint John’s. +

etire from tailor shop and fl ower gardens
George Primus, OSB
In the chapter of his Rule on
“The Clothing and Footwear
of the Brothers” Saint Benedict
writes, “The abbot ought to be concerned
about the measurements of the
monks’ garments that they not be too
short but fi tted to the wearers. . . . The
cowls and tunics of brothers going
on a journey ought to be somewhat
better than those they ordinarily wear”
(chapter 55).
Benedict prohibits shabby, sloppy
dress and recognizes the importance
of the monastic tailor, even though he
gives no specific directions for this
position.
For the past fifty years, Brother
George needed no detailed job
description to do his tailoring work
with competence and charity. After a
few years binding books and working
at the Liturgical Press, George spent
five years helping with farm chores at
the interracial Saint Maur’s Priory in
Kentucky. There he taught himself to
sew and mend.
After his return to Saint John’s,
George spent six months at Saint
Bernard’s Abbey, Cullman, Alabama,
Brother George at his sewing machine
in the tailor shop
to learn tailoring. Then he began
to do what he has done for the past
five decades—sewing name tapes
on clothing for monks who are more
concerned about losing their laundry
than their identity, expanding
the trousers of confreres who added
an inch or two at the waist, patching
a hole or sewing on a button,
collecting clean, castaway clothes
for an Indian mission, and making
toiletries and clothing available to the
monks.
Now George will have more time
to pursue his hobbies of braiding rag
rugs, making cone Christmas wreaths
and fashioning canes from diamond
willow wood. +
Francis Peters, OSB
For the past twenty years Brother
Francis has worked with
Brother George in the abbey
tailor shop. His specialty is the use of
the pressing machine that adds the finishing
touch to laundered trousers and
habits. It takes a keen eye and steady
hands to put that crease in just the
right place. Francis had both during
the days he spent applying a hot iron
to cold cloth.
Prior to his tailoring tasks Francis
worked as bookkeeper in the treasurer’s
office and at the Liturgical
Press, operated the multilith machine
(remember that process?) in the Print
Shop and attended to books in the
university library and plants in the
greenhouse.
He interrupted his work at Saint
John’s to contribute his services for
BANNER BITS
short terms at Saint John’s mission
monasteries of San Antonio Abad in
Puerto Rico and Saint Augustine’s in
the Bahamas.
Francis is especially remembered
and esteemed for his creative care of
the private monastic garden located
between the quadrangle and Lake
Sagatagan. Summer after summer
he planted and protected a colorful
assortment of roses, geraniums, impatiens,
salvia, lilies, ivy, ferns, coleus
and dusty miller. He waged persistent
battle against marauding squirrels,
rabbits and deer that preferred the
tender shoots of flowers to the runof-the-field
grass. Eventually he had
to admit that there were more of them
than there was of him, so he ceased
planting. The animals’ gain has been
our loss.
Lee Hanley George Primus, OSB, and Francis Peters, OSB,
Over the years Francis gained the
gratitude of the community for his
unassuming and faithful service. +
Brother Francis does pressing business in
the tailor shop.
Lee Hanley
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 27

Lee Hanley
BANNER BITS
When Brother George Primus,
OSB, retired after
fi fty years as the abbey’s
tailor, it was an easy decision to hire
his replacement, Janet Merdan.
Since 1988 Janet has been the community’s
full-time seamstress, making
monastic habits and cucullas (the
ample choir robe for monks with fi nal
vows) as well as liturgical vestments
such as albs, chasubles, stoles and
episcopal miters.
Janet and her husband Leonard live
in nearby Albany and are the parents
of four sons and two daughters and
the grandparents of ten. She started
sewing as a four-year-old when her
grandmother taught her the rudiments
of the sewing machine. She made her
first dress when she was nine.
This creative and dedicated seamstress
has no less than ten sewing
machines in her home, including
a long-arm quilting machine on a
twelve-foot table. She is one of the
two hundred members of the St.
Cloud Heritage Quilters who meet
monthly for “Sew and Tell” and will
page 28 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
have a Quilt Show at the College of
Saint Benedict next October.
For thirteen years Janet was the
seamstress/tailor for the Saint John’s
Boys’ Choir. At her suggestion the
choir purchased tuxedos when the
original uniforms were hard to replace
due to different dye lots. She says,
“I loved working for the choir. My
memories of those wonderful young
men and all the places I traveled with
them (Germany and Austria twice,
Italy, Bahamas, Japan, the east coast
and central states) are something no
one can take from me.”
Janet worked briefly
with Adam Kochlin, former
member of the abbey,
in the design and production
of liturgical vestments.
Inspired by his creativity,
she designed a complete
set of vestments for the
celebration of Saint John’s
Sesquicentennial. She also
made the colorful banners
that decorate the abbey
Janet Merdan and the Sesquicentennial
chasuble she designed
Janet Merdan,
new abbey tailor,
loves to sew
and sew
church for special occasions and
recently began repairing uniforms for
the university’s athletic department.
She repairs and alters monks’ clothing,
replaces buttons and zippers, and
makes linens.
When people ask her, “What do
you do at home after a day of sewing
at the abbey?” she says, “I sew some
more. I love to do this work.” Hers is
not a job but a vocation. +
Janet at her sewing machine in the tailor shop
Lee Hanley

Family album
In the beginning there was Peter
Eich (1834-1920). By 1864 this
immigrant from Rettenbach,
Bavaria, had made a land claim and
built his farm house in the Indianbush
area west of the St. Joseph settlement.
A Civil War veteran, Peter and
his wife Philomena were the parents
of thirteen children. Two daughters
became members of Saint Benedict’s
Monastery, Sisters Amalia and Crescentia.
When the “Eich Family Tree”
was published in 1974 there were 474
known descendants of this pioneer
couple.
When the Benedictines finally settled
on the shore of Lake Sagatagan
in 1865, they were fortunate to have
Peter’s carpentry and woodworking
skills available just a mile away. He
and many other local craftsmen built
In the beginning . . .
there were Eichs
Marlin Eich, fourth generation carpenter, retires after forty years.
Family album
Family album
Peter and Philomena Eich and Family (1910)
Aloys Eich, grandfather
of Marlin
John Eich, father
of Marlin
the early structures
of the monastery
and school.
The Eich name
became a regular
one on Saint
John’s roster of
employees. One
of Peter’s sons,
Aloys, worked
on the abbey’s
hog farm. Three
of Aloys’ sons,
John, Florian and
Alphonse, worked
respectively as
carpenter, custodian
in a college
dormitory and
forester. Bertha,
granddaughter of Peter, worked in the
laundry for forty-one years.
Near the top of the
Eich totem pole is
Marlin Eich, greatgrandson
of Peter,
grandson of Aloys and
son of John. He retired
September 15 on the
fortieth anniversary of
Marlin Eich
BANNER BITS
being hired as a carpenter for Saint
John’s Woodworking. Calling himself
a “professional putzer dabbling in
wood and byproducts,” Marlin is the
last of the Eich family to continue an
almost Sesquicentennial tradition of
working at Saint John’s.
Summing up his four decades at
Saint John’s, Marlin said, “What I
liked about my job was doing something
different every few days—from
installing and removing air conditioners,
to hanging a door and repairing
a roof.” Though he has plenty of
projects at home to keep him busy,
Marlin will work part time as a consultant
on the repair of campus roofs.
He does not plan to fall down on the
job. +
This sign marks the original Eich farm
on Fruit Farm Road near Saint John’s.
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 29
Family album

Abbey Archives
OBITUARIES
Lee Hanley
Bartholomew Letory Sayles,
OSB
1918 – 2006
In his eulogy at the September 21
Funeral Mass of Bartholomew
Sayles, OSB, Prior Raymond
Pedrizetti, OSB, began, “Father
Bartholomew was large, one of those
people who seem larger than life. He
was not the kind of person you could
easily ignore. He seemed always to
be happy, to enjoy whatever interested
him.”
The Prior listed a few of
Bartholomew’s interests:
+ food well seasoned from a collection
of Cajun condiments at his
plate;
+ music, especially Gregorian chant
by the Schola Gregoriana which
he founded and directed “while
Bartholomew and Sister Cecile Gertken, OSB,
collaborated on adapting English translations of
Latin hymns to chant melodies.
page 30 The Abbey Banner Winter 2006
sweating profusely, extracting a
huge handkerchief from the sleeve
of his cassock and wiping his
forehead in the grand manner of
Luciano Pavarotti”;
+ community prayer in his favorite
choir stall each morning and evening;
+ the memory of his encounter with
Sister Katharine Drexel when she
came to his classroom while students
were practicing the Palmer
Penmanship Method, touched his
shoulder and said, “You could
improve your penmanship”;
+ the pride he took in being the third
African-American to be accepted
into the Saint John’s community
when few other Catholic seminaries
would accept black students;
+ his participation in the October
1, 2000, canonization of Saint
Katharine Drexel.
Born in New Orleans eighty-eight
years ago, Letory, the youngest of
the four sons and three daughters
of George and Evangeline (Letory)
Sayles, majored in music at Xavier
University of Louisiana and eventually
became that institution’s first
priestly vocation. He entered the
novitiate of Saint John’s Abbey in
1943, made his initial commitment to
the monastic way of life in 1944 and
was ordained in 1948.
Music became Bartholomew’s
ministry—from founding the original
Saint John’s Preparatory
School Glee Club and serving
as abbey organist and Saint
John’s University music instructor
to earning the Master’s
degree in music education from
the University of Minnesota
and teaching music, religion
and English at St. Augustine’s
College, Nassau, Bahamas, for
thirteen years.
Upon his return to Saint John’s
he taught voice, music theory
A younger, slimmer Bartholomew teaching
Gregorian Chant notation
and Gregorian chant and collaborated
with Sister Cecile Gertken, OSB, of
Saint Benedict’s Monastery in the
adaptation and publication of English
translations of Latin hymns to chant
melodies.
Bartholomew died of congestive
heart failure September 17. His transition
from directing choirs on earth
to singing with the angelic choirs of
heaven must have been an easy one.
He fulfilled the words of Psalm 27:
“I will sing and make music for the
Lord.” May he rest in peace. +
Remember our loved ones
who have gone to their rest:
Mathilda Brouillaard
M. John Eiden
Jill Gendel
Marianne Hansen
Abbot Francis Kline, OCSO
Dennis McDarby
Rabbi Nahum Schulman
Charles Rath
Diane Helmeke Schipper
Sister Katheryn Sullivan, RSCJ
May they rest in peace
Abbey Archives

Richard Oliver, OSB
The meditation chapel of the
Abbey Guesthouse
Spiritual Life
Program
moves to the
Guesthouse
by Robert Pierson, OSB
We welcome you to our new
place of spiritual renewal.
I
have heard it said, “The more
things change, the more they stay
the same.” This statement sums
up for me the direction I envision for
our Abbey Spiritual Life Program as
we move into our new space in the
Abbey Guesthouse. There will be
many wonderful changes taking place
as we realize the benefi ts of having
enough room to host our guests who
are here for spiritual direction and for
private or group retreats.
At the same time, we intend to stay
true to our mission statement which
reads, “The Spiritual Life Program of
The fireplace in the foyer of the Abbey Guesthouse
Saint John’s Abbey exists to assist in
the spiritual growth of seekers after
God, whether monks of Saint John’s
Abbey or people who come in contact
with the community.” We will
continue to offer spiritual direction to
anyone who seeks the opportunity to
grow in his or her relationship with
God.
Currently, we three Benedictine
priests—Don Tauscher, Simeon
Thole, and I—are serving as spiritual
directors for private retreats and for
ongoing direction with people from
various walks of life. We will continue
to offer our monthly Benedictine
Day of Prayer.
Now, however, we
will have plenty of
room for participants
to stay with
us the night before
and/or the night
after the Day of
Prayer.
We hope to gradually
expand the
SPIRITUAL LIFE
number of groups who come to Saint
John’s for retreat. Our new space
will allow us to host approximately
twenty retreatants at one time. We
welcome groups who want to use our
space for their own retreats and we
intend to occasionally sponsor retreats
directed by monks of Saint John’s
Abbey. Initially we are planning
retreats for each of the major seasons
of the church year (Advent/Christmas,
Lent and Easter) as well as the annual
Oblate retreat in early July.
I intend to canvass the monastic
community for retreat directors and
topics. If you have subject ideas for
group retreats, please let us know.
We are always interested in your
input. Simply contact the Abbey
Spiritual Life Program by e-mail at
spirlife@osb.org or call us at 320-
363-3929. Also check our abbey
website at www/saintjohnsabbey.
org for new information about our
Spiritual Life Program offerings. We
want to welcome you to our new
place of spiritual renewal. +
Robert Pierson is the director of the
Abbey Spiritual Life Program.
The Abbey Banner Winter 2006 page 31
Richard Oliver, OSB

PO Box 2015
Collegeville, MN 56321-2015
www.saintjohnsabbey.org
Calendar of 2007 Sesquicentennial Events
of Saint John’s Abbey and Saint Benedict’s Monastery
Saint John’s Abbey Events
March 14 Academic Day for the faculty and
staff of CSB, SJU, SOT, SJP. Full
day of seminars, lectures, performances
to recognize 150 years of
outstanding education
June 10-13 Community: The Art of Living
Together, for 300 invited
participants
June 23-24 Monks’ Family Weekend
October 5-7 Creativity Days/Homecoming
Weekend
November 10 150th anniversary of the first day
of classes at Saint John’s in 1857 /
Closing Celebration
CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED
Saint Benedict’s Monastery Events
January 7 Monks of Saint John’s Abbey as
guests of the Sisters
February 10 Community celebration at Saint
Scholastica Monastery, St. Cloud
February 15-16 Women’s Spirituality Conference
March 4 Opening of Haehn Museum
Exhibit featuring Sisters’ history
March 14 Academic Day for the faculty and
staff of CSB, SJU, SOT, SJP. Full
day of seminars, lectures, performances
to recognize 150 years of
outstanding education
April 22 Celebration of Earth Day with residents
of St. Joseph, Minnesota
July 4 Commemoration of arrival of the
Sisters in St. Cloud
July 22 Heritage Day with guests from the
eleven monasteries founded by
Saint Benedict’s Monastery
August 24 Donor Appreciation Event
September 29 Oblate Renewal Day
October 24 Anniversary of the Dedication of
Sacred Heart Chapel
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Saint John’s Abbey