Monastery information | |
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Full name | Abbey Basilica of Mary, Help of Christians |
Order | Benedictines |
Established | April 1876 |
Mother house | Saint Vincent Archabbey |
Dedicated to | Mary, Help of Christians |
Diocese | Charlotte |
Controlled churches | Cathedral Basilica of St. Mary |
People | |
Founder(s) | Dom Herman Wolfe, O.S.B. |
Abbot | The Rt. Rev. Placid Solari, O.S.B. |
Important associated figures | Abbot-Bishop Leo Haid, O.S.B. |
Architecture | |
Status | active |
Heritage designation | National Register of Historic Places |
Style | Gothic Revival |
Site | |
Location | Belmont, North Carolina, United States |
Coordinates | 35°15′41″N81°02′38″W / 35.2613°N 81.0438°W |
Website | www |
Belmont Abbey Cathedral | |
NRHP reference No. | 73001343 |
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Added to NRHP | April 11, 1973 |
The Abbey Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, informally known as the Belmont Abbey, is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery and a Minor Basilica in Belmont, North Carolina, United States of America. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. [1] The monastery is administered by the American-Cassinese Benedictine Congregation.
Pope Leo XIII officially declared the monastery an abbey on 19 December 1884. Pope Pius XII declared Mary Help of Christians its Patroness via his decree Perfugium Rebus on 5 December 1957. Pope John Paul II raised the shrine to the status of Minor basilica via the Pontifical Decree Sacras Ædes on 27 July 1998.
The Catholic priest, Father Jeremiah O'Connell O.S.B. was a Christian missionary who had built Saint Mary's College in Columbia, South Carolina, but it had been destroyed during the American Civil War. In 1876 he bought the 500-acre former Caldwell farm and donated it to the Benedictines of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in hopes they would establish an educational institution in North Carolina. Under the direction of Abbot Boniface Wimmer of St. Vincent, the Benedictines set about to establish a monastery and college. The monks constructed the buildings from red clay. [2]
Pope Leo XIII issued a decree on 19 December 1884 raising the priory monastery to an Abbey of Mary Help of Christians and Father Leo Michael Haid was elected the first abbot, a position he held until his death in 1924. [3]
In July 1886, the first three novices professed vows and an alumnus of the college became a novice. That same year, Haid founded a seminary at Belmont. On February 4, 1888, he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina and was consecrated bishop at the Baltimore Cathedral by Cardinal James Gibbons on July 1, 1888, becoming the first American abbot-bishop.
In May 1891 the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes was dedicated as a pilgrimage shrine by Abbot Haid. [4] Katharine Drexel, a benefactor of the monastery and college, visited Belmont Abbey in 1904.
From 1910 through 1977, Belmont Abbey was a territorial abbey, exercising some functions of a diocese. It had responsibility for parishes in the North Carolina counties of Gaston, Catawba, Cleveland, Burke, Lincoln, McDowell, Polk, and Rutherford. In 1944, its territory, except for Gaston County, was given to the Diocese of Raleigh. In July 1960, Gaston County too was placed under the Diocese of Raleigh. In 1977, its status as a territorial abbey was suppressed under the Diocese of Charlotte. [5]
Construction began on the Abbey Church of Mary Help of Christians in 1892 and was completed in 1894. The Abbey Church was dedicated April 11, 1894. [6] The church is a large cruciform plan, Gothic Revival style brick church. It has a steep gable roof and the front facade features two towers of unequal size. [1] On July 27, 1998, the Vatican issued a decree elevating the abbey church at Belmont to the rank of a minor basilica. The church features a baptismal font carved from a stone upon which African American slaves were once sold on the North Carolina market. [7]
Father Herman Wolfe, O.S.B. and two students arrived in April 1876. [8] The first students graduated in 1878. In April 1886 the state of North Carolina issued Saint Mary's College a charter authorizing the abbey/school to grant degrees. Two-thirds of the College Building was destroyed by fire in 1900. Rebuilding began immediately. In 1913 Saint Mary's adopted the Belmont Abbey name. [3]
On June 20, 2011, Belmont Abbey College broke ground for a residences for female students with or expecting children—regardless of religious affiliation—that can hold 15 babies, 15 women (who can stay for up to two years), and 8 toddlers at a time, with a shared living room, dining room, and laundry room. The residence, called "Room at the Inn" is operated by a Charlotte, North Carolina-based maternity and aftercare center of the same name.
In May 2020, the college announced it was starting a nursing program to address the continuing healthcare needs in Gaston County. [9]
On July 14, 1993, the central campus was entered on the National Register of Historic Places as the "Belmont Abbey National Historic District."
The abbey is the motherhouse to Saint Leo Abbey in Tampa, Florida, as well as Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, Virginia. The monks also are the benefactors of Belmont Abbey College, a four-year Catholic liberal arts school. As of 2020, there are about twenty monks at Belmont Abbey. [8]
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a mainly contemplative monastic religious order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. The male religious are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits, in contrast to other Benedictine orders such as the Olivetans, who wear white. They were founded in 529 by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century Italian monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, possibly his twin, also became a religious from an early age, but chose to live as a hermit. They retained a close relationship until her death.
Belmont is a small suburban city in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States, located about 9 miles (14 km) east of Gastonia. The population was 10,076 at the 2010 census. Once known as Garibaldi Station, it was named for the New York banker August Belmont. Belmont is home to Belmont Abbey College.
The Diocese of Raleigh is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church that covers eastern North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archbishop of Atlanta.
The Diocese of Charlotte is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in western North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Belmont Abbey College is a private, Catholic liberal arts college in Belmont, North Carolina. It was founded in 1876 by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey. The college is affiliated with the Catholic Church and the Order of Saint Benedict. Belmont Abbey is the only college in North Carolina affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both the abbey and the school are at Stratton-on-the-Fosse, between Westfield and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, South West England. In 2020, the monastic community announced that it would move away from the present monastery and seek a new place to live. In October 2021, the monastic community further announced that as part of their transition they would move in Spring of 2022 to the temporary accommodation of "Southgate House, in the grounds of Buckfast Abbey, Devon, where we will live as the Community of St Gregory the Great". As of 2020, the monastic community of Downside Abbey was home to fifteen monks.
Saint Leo Abbey is an American-Cassinese monastery of Benedictine monks located in Saint Leo, Florida, United States.
Saint Vincent Archabbey is a Benedictine monastery in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in the city of Latrobe. A member of the American-Cassinese Congregation, it is the oldest Benedictine monastery in the United States and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The shrine is dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul.
Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, (1809–1887) was a German monk who in 1846 founded the first Benedictine monastery in the United States, Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, forty miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Subiaco Abbey is an American Benedictine monastery located in the Arkansas River valley of Logan County, Arkansas, part of the Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictine monasteries. It is home to thirty-nine Benedictine monks. The abbey and the preparatory school it operates, Subiaco Academy, are major features of the town of Subiaco, Arkansas. It is named after the original Subiaco, Italy, where the first monastery founded by Saint Benedict was located.
A territorial abbey is a particular church of the Catholic Church comprising defined territory which is not part of a diocese but surrounds an abbey or monastery whose abbot or superior functions as ordinary for all Catholics and parishes in the territory. Such an abbot is called a territorial abbot or abbot nullius diœceseos. A territorial abbot thus differs from an ordinary abbot, who exercises authority only within the monastery's walls or to monks or canons who have taken their vows there. A territorial abbot is equivalent to a diocesan bishop in Catholic canon law.
Conception Abbey, site of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, is a monastery of the Swiss-American Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. The monastery, founded by the Swiss Engelberg Abbey in 1873 in northwest Missouri's Nodaway County, was raised to a conventual priory in 1876 and elevated to an abbey in 1881. In 2021 the community numbered fifty-eight monks who celebrate the Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours daily and who staff and administer Conception Seminary College, The Printery House, and the Abbey Guest Center. Monks also serve as parish priests and hospital chaplains in the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph and other dioceses. There is also a large postal facility attached to The Printery House, operated by lay employees, which includes package shipping and delivery facilities.
Martin Marty was a Swiss-born Benedictine missionary and Catholic bishop in the United States.
Mary, the Help of Christians is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, based on a devotion now associated with a feast day of the General Roman Calendar on 24 May.
Leo Haid was an American Benedictine abbot and Catholic bishop, who served as the abbot of the Abbey of Mary Help of Christians, in Belmont, North Carolina, from 1885 to 1924. He also served as vicar apostolic of North Carolina from 1888 to 1910 and territorial abbot from 1910 to 1924.
The Abbot Primate of the Order of St. Benedict serves as the elected representative of the Benedictine Confederation of monasteries in the Catholic Church. While normally possessing no authority over individual autonomous monasteries or congregations, he does serve as a liaison to the Vatican on behalf of the Benedictines, promotes unity among Benedictine monasteries and congregations, and represents Benedictines at religious gatherings throughout the world. He resides in Rome, Italy, at Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino which serves, because he is Abbot Primate, as the "Primatial Abbey of Sant'Anselmo." He appoints a Rector to oversee the College of Sant'Anselmo, serves as the "Grand Chancellor" of the Pontificio Ateneo Sant'Anselmo, and appoints a Rector to oversee the Church of Sant'Anselmo.
The American-Cassinese Congregation is a Catholic association of Benedictine monasteries founded in 1855. The monasteries of the congregation follow the monastic way of life as outlined by St. Benedict of Nursia in his early 6th century Rule of Saint Benedict. The congregation is one of 19 congregations in the Benedictine Confederation and includes 25 monasteries: 19 autonomous abbeys and 6 dependent priories, located across 15 states and Puerto Rico, as well as Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and Taiwan.
Saint Anselm Abbey, located in Goffstown, New Hampshire, United States, is a Benedictine abbey composed of men living under the Rule of Saint Benedict within the Catholic Church. The abbey was founded in 1889 under the patronage of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk of Bec and former archbishop of Canterbury in England. The monks are involved in the operation of Saint Anselm College. The abbey is a member of the American-Cassinese Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation.
Rupert Seidenbusch was a German prelate of the Catholic Church. A Benedictine monk, he served as the first abbot of Saint John's Abbey (1866-1875) and the first Vicar Apostolic of Northern Minnesota (1875-1888).
The Benedictine Priory of Savannah is a Catholic monastery of Benedictine monks located in Savannah, Georgia. The priory was founded in 1877, and is a dependency of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and thereby belongs to the American-Cassinese Congregation. It currently operates the Benedictine Military School for boys.