Monastery information | |
---|---|
Other names | Savannah Priory |
Order | Benedictine |
Established | 1877 |
Mother house | Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania |
Diocese | Savannah |
People | |
Founder(s) | Abbot Nullius Leo Haid, O.S.B. |
Abbot | The Right Rev. Martin Bartel, O.S.B. |
Prior | Rev. David Klecker, O.S.B. |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Monastic |
Completion date | 1963 |
Site | |
Location | 6502 Seawright Drive, Savannah, Georgia 31406 United States |
Coordinates | 32°0′34″N81°5′33″W / 32.00944°N 81.09250°W |
The Benedictine Priory of Savannah is a Catholic monastery of Benedictine monks located in Savannah, Georgia. [1] 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. [2] It currently operates the Benedictine Military School for boys.
In 1866, the Catholic bishops of the United States had met in Baltimore for the Second Plenary Council held there to continue providing order to the Catholic Church, which was still newly established in the nation. One of the decrees which resulted from that assembly was to call on all the bishops of the country to establish an outreach to the newly emancipated African-American slaves. In keeping with this mandate, William Hickley Gross, C.Ss.R., at that time the Roman Catholic Bishop of Savannah, invited the Benedictine monks of St. Vincent Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to contribute priests to this mission in his diocese. [3]
In response to his invitation, Abbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., the founder of Benedictine life in the United States, sent two German-born monks to Savannah in 1874. The monks quickly began missionary work amongst newly freed slaves, opening St. Benedict Parish in the city that year, and a parochial school the following year. [3]
Soon after settling there, the monks were able to obtain some parcels of land on the Isle of Hope, off the coast of Savannah, where they opened the first monastery in the Southern United States. Within a year, however, all the members of the monastic community had died of yellow fever. [3]
In 1877, the abbot sent a new group of monks to Georgia, under the leadership of Dom Oswald Moosmueller, O.S.B., to continue the mission to the former slaves. The monks bought 713 acres on Skidaway Island. At this site (now believed to be preserved, not part of a golf course, and is currently undergoing archaeological research) they built a new monastery and school. Unfortunately, in less than ten years, the project was abandoned as a failure because the monks could not attract enough interest among the African American community in their enterprise. [3]
The ten monks of the mission, now operating under the authority of Belmont Abbey in North Carolina, made the decision to move to Savannah, where they established a monastery at 31st and Habersham Streets, adjacent to Sacred Heart Parish, which they then served. Recognizing the need for a Catholic boys' school, they established Benedictine College in 1902, later the Benedictine Military School, next to the church. In 1963, both the priory and the school moved to their current location on the southside of Savannah. [3] Shortly after moving to the new location, the monastic community chose to return to the authority of St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe.
Today the community consists of seven monks, all of whom serve on the staff of the school in various capacities. The monks also provide sacramental assistance in the Diocese of Savannah. [3]
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.
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. The monastery is administered by the American-Cassinese Benedictine Congregation.
Saint Leo Abbey is an American-Cassinese monastery of Benedictine monks located in Saint Leo, Florida, United States.
The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) is a congregation of autonomous abbatial and prioral monastic communities of Catholic Benedictine monks, nuns, and lay oblates. It is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations affiliated to the Benedictine Confederation.
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.
Saint John's Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Collegeville Township, Minnesota, United States, affiliated with the American-Cassinese Congregation. The abbey was established following the arrival in the area of monks from Saint Vincent Archabbey in Pennsylvania in 1856. Saint John's is one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in the Western Hemisphere, with 110 professed monks. The Right Reverend Fr. Doug Mullin, OSB, serves as the eleventh abbot.
Blue Cloud Abbey was an American Benedictine monastery located near the town of Marvin, in Grant County, South Dakota. It was a member of the Swiss-American Congregation. The patron saint of the monastery was the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Snows, from which the abbey derived its name.
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 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.
The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro Casaretto, O.S.B., as a reform of the way of life of monasteries of the Cassinese Congregation, formed in 1408, toward a stricter contemplative observance, and received final approval in 1872 by Pope Pius IX. After discussions between the two congregations at the start of the 21st century, approval was given by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 for the incorporation of the Cassinese Congregation into its offshoot, the Subiaco Congregation. The expanded congregation was given this new name.
The Swiss-American Congregation is an association of Benedictine monasteries founded in 1881 in the United States, as a part of the international Benedictine Confederation of monasteries.
The Abbey of St. Maurus and St. Placidus is a Tanzanian Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien in Hanga, Ruvuma Region. Established in 1956 by Abbot-Bishop Eberhard Spiess as a formation house for African monastic candidates, the monastery is currently home to 122 monks. The abbey operates schools and a dispensary for the people of the local village and a seminary for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Songea.
St Benedict's Abbey, Pietersburg (Polokwane), Limpopo, South Africa, is a Benedictine monastery of the Subiaco Congregation. It began in 1911 as a mission territory; the community established a monastery in 1937. As an Abbey Nullius, the monastery governed what is now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Polokwane until 1989. As of 2022, the community numbers about 12 in various stages of formation monks. The community was given the Very Rev. Dominic Mohapi, OSB, as Prior Administrator on August 18, 2022. On October 1, 2023, the Very Rev. Ghislain Maluvu, OSB, was appointed as Prior Administrator.
The Abbey of the Holy Cross in Cañon City, Colorado, is a former monastery of the Order of St. Benedict in the United States. It existed for nearly 120 years, operating such various enterprises as a boarding school for boys and a winery. It is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.
St. Benedict's Abbey is an American community of monks of the Order of St. Benedict located in Atchison, Kansas. It was founded in 1857 to provide education to the sons of German settlers in the Kansas Territory.
The Brazilian Congregation is a monastic congregation of the order of Saint Benedict. Founded in 1827, it is a member of the Benedictine Confederation.
Andrew Hintenach, OSB was a German-born Catholic monk who served as the second archabbot of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania from 1888 to 1892.
Aurelius Aloysius Stehle, OSB was an American Catholic Benedictine priest and fourth archabbot of St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.