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FEATURE
Saint Johnʼs and the American Benedictine Academy
by Richard Oliver, OSB
Several monks of Saint John’s
Abbey played pivotal roles in
the foundation and development
of the American Benedictine
Academy (ABA). Its predecessor, the
National Benedictine Education Association
(NBEA), founded in 1917,
had outlived its role as a “coordinating
agency for the educational work”
of Benedictine institutions.
Alcuin Deutsch, OSB, fifth abbot of
Saint John’s, was never enthusiastic
about this association. He proposed as
page 14 The Abbey Banner Winter 2004
The Board of Directors of the
American Benedictine Academy:
l. to r. Ramona Fallon, OSB; Adel
Sautner, OSB, executive secretary;
Cyril Drnjevic, OSB; Rosemary
Rader, OSB, past-president;
Richard Oliver, OSB, president;
Theresa Schumacher, OSB, vicepresident;
Simeon Thole, OSB
“. . . a non-profit association whose purpose is to cultivate, support and transmit
the Benedictine heritage within contemporary culture” —the Academy’s mission statement
Abbot Alcuin Deutsch, OSB,
originator of the ABA in 1947
a successor to the NBEA “an organization
with a different scope and objective,
one that would serve as a medium
of contact and stimulation among
American Benedictine scholars.”
Since the early 1920s Abbot Alcuin
was familiar with the scholarly publications
of the Bavarian Benedictine
Academy. He presented his idea of an
American Benedictine Academy to the
leadership of the American Benedictine
Congregation. On December 30,
1947, seventeen abbeys enthusiastically
approved the final revision of the
Academy’s statutes.
Final authority of the
Academy was vested in
the abbot-president of the
American Cassinese Congregation,
at that time Mark
Braun, OSB, Saint Gregory’s
Abbey, Shawnee, Oklahoma.
At the constitutive
assembly, Martin Schirber,
OSB, Saint John’s professor
of economics, was appointed
the Academy’s first
Martin Schirber, OSB,
first vice-president of
the ABA, 1947
vice-president by the executive board
of reigning abbots.
In the beginning there were three
classes of membership: educationally
qualified, ordained monks who had
voting rights; qualified women monastics
and lay people; all professed
members of contributing communities.
Membership grew from 315 in
1949 to 415 in 1954. After the Second
Vatican Council (1965) all members
received full voting rights. Membership
dropped from 785 in 1970 to 91
in 1976. A thorough re-organization
of the Academy with a new constitution
was effected in 1978. Current
membership numbers 314.
Publications of the
Academy began in 1948 with
the ABA Newsletter, giving
information about sectional
and board meetings plus
items of general Benedictine
interest. This publication
was succeeded in 1987 by
the American Monastic
Newsletter, edited by Judith