Monastery information | |
---|---|
Other names | Clear Creek Abbey |
Order | Benedictine |
Established | 1999 |
Mother house | Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption |
Dedicated to | Our Lady of the Annunciation |
Diocese | Tulsa |
People | |
Founder(s) | Dom Philip Anderson |
Abbot | Dom Philip Anderson |
Site | |
Location | Hulbert, Oklahoma |
Coordinates | 36°02′02″N95°11′45″W / 36.033852°N 95.195836°W |
Website | www |
Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey or Clear Creek Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey in the Ozark Mountains near Hulbert in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. It is located in the Diocese of Tulsa.
The monastery traces its roots to the Abbey of Fontgombault in France. Thirty-one American Catholic men, seeking to live the full Benedictine life, went to Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption at Fontgombault, France, which is a monastery of the Solesmes Congregation. [1]
In 1999, seven of these men, now monks from Fontgombault, along with six other monks from Canada and France, established a community near Hulbert, Oklahoma at the invitation of Bishop Edward James Slattery. [1] Clear Creek is the second monastery of the Solesmes Congregation established in the United States; the first is a house of nuns at Westfield, Vermont. The monastery is being built in phases, and until the church was finished, Masses were said in the crypt.
In February 2010, Clear Creek Abbey gained abbatial status. It uses the 1962 Roman Missal (Tridentine Mass). [2] [3] The choir is well known for its Gregorian chant. Its first abbot, as of 2010, is Dom Philip Anderson, who had been the prior since the monastery's founding. He has said, “We just follow the old monastic life. We pray, worship and do manual labor and give counseling to people... There's a whole culture war going on and a series of disappointments with the Catholic Church in America. People look to this monastery as a new beginning, as a new element that has a solid backing in a long tradition of monastic life.” [3]
Clear Creek is now actively recruiting to its full capacity of 60-70 monks. As of 2003, there were 22 monks, while by 2013, there were over 40. [1] [3] Clear Creek currently houses 60 monks, and in recent years, a community of lay families have started to gather around the abbey. [4]
The monastery is also actively fundraising, having raised $4 million (as of 2003) of a target of $32 million. After a large gift was received in 2009, construction on the church moved forward in 2011. The west façade, the nave, and the transept were raised to half their planned height. A roof was put over this new structure, allowing for its use as a church. In 2013, schematic architectural plans for the remaining buildings were completed. A contract for construction of the church’s eastern portion, or chevet, was signed on March 10, 2016. [5]
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, they are the oldest of all the religious orders in the Latin Church. The male religious are also sometimes called the Black Monks, especially in English speaking countries, after the colour of their habits, although some, like the Olivetans, wear white. They were founded 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.
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Dom Joseph Pothier, O.S.B. (1835–1923) was a worldwide known French prelate, liturgist and scholar who reconstituted the Gregorian chant.
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Abbot Philip Anderson, born in 1953, is the current abbot of the Benedictine monastery, Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, situated in Hulbert, Oklahoma. Born and raised in a Unitarian family, he converted to Catholicism during his university years and later pursued a monastic life. After serving in monasteries in France, Anderson helped establish Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma, which is known for its adherence to traditional monastic life and liturgy, including the 1962 Roman Missal and Gregorian chant.