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St. Gregory's Abbey is an American monastic community of men living under the Rule of St. Benedict within the Episcopal Church. The abbey is located near Three Rivers in St. Joseph County, Michigan.
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St. Gregory's Abbey is an American monastic community of men living under the Rule of St. Benedict within the Episcopal Church. The abbey is located near Three Rivers in St. Joseph County, Michigan.
In 1935, a group of American Episcopalians went to England to be trained by the Anglican Benedictines of Nashdom Abbey in Buckinghamshire. Some of this group returned to the US, became life-professed monks, and in 1939 formed St. Gregory's House in Valparaiso, Indiana. It soon became St. Gregory's Priory.
The monks initially gained their living by taking charge of three mission churches in Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana under Bishop Campbell Gray. The three missions were: St. Stephen's in Hobart, St. Andrew's in Valparaiso and St. Augustine's Episcopal Church (Gary, Indiana). In 1946, the community moved to a rural setting near Three Rivers, Michigan, and grew considerably under the leadership of Dom Paul Severance.
For 30 years, the monastery was a dependency of Nashdom Abbey and relied on the careful shepherding of its abbots. In 1969 St. Gregory's became an independent abbey, and the community's prior, Benedict Reid, was elected first abbot. In 1989, Andrew Marr was elected as his successor.
The monastery housework is done by the monks. This includes a good deal of outside work such as landscaping, gardening, and grounds maintenance.
There are classes for the monks, correspondence to answer, sermons, retreats, and special ministries to prepare for. Community members occasionally minister in parish churches and other religious houses, and retreats conducted at the abbey. The frequency of external activities incidental to the normal life of a monk is regulated by the necessity of preserving Benedictine life.
Work, study and prayer are the main activities, with prayer being the most important. The conventual Eucharist is the center of each day. In the past, the monastery celebrated the Tridentine Mass in Latin, but Mass is now celebrated from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and with the celebrant facing the congregation.
Benedict of Nursia is a Christian saint venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion and Old Catholic Churches. He is a patron saint of Europe.
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits. They were founded by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule of Saint Benedict.
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St. Andrew Abbey-Cleveland is a Benedictine monastery in Cleveland, Ohio.
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The College of Sant'Anselmo is an international Benedictine college founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1887 and located in Rome, Italy. Situated on the Aventine Hill, it is one of four Benedictine institutions that occupy the complex known as "Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino" which serves as the Primatial Abbey of the Benedictine Confederation. As an ecclesiastical residential college in the Roman College tradition, it serves as both a house of formation for Benedictines, but also as a residence for over one hundred monks from around forty countries, religious, diocesan priests, and lay people. It offers a monastic environment for those who study at the onsite Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm or at other Roman pontifical universities.
Wells, Wallace L.; "Prayerful and Militant", The Living Church , 1960
Coordinates: 41°58′32.2″N85°42′48.0″W / 41.975611°N 85.713333°W
