Brief history of 100 years of St. Paul’s Abbey -(E) Part 1

Little Flower Monastery — Saint Paul’s Abbey

St. Paul’s Abbey belongs to the Ottilien Congregation of the Benedictine family. This congregation has its origins in the missionary movement that was newly awakening in the Church in the nineteenth century. Fr. Andreas Amrhein, a monk of Beuron, believed that the Benedictines, too, could share in this missionary movement and keep alive the monastic missionary tradition of the Benedictines that existed in the first millennium in Europe. He founded his congregation in Bavaria, Germany in 1884. Almost immediately Rome assigned the monks of the new congregation the southern half of present-day Tanzania as their territory.

World War I brought a set back to that monastic mission work in East Africa. All the German monks were detained from 1917 on for the remainder of the war and then returned to St. Ottilien in Germany. The missionary monks realized that they had to expand their base in personnel beyond Germany if they were to be able to continue. At the same time, the post war period in Germany was economically difficult. St. Ottilien looked towards the USA. In 1921 it assigned one of its former East African missionaries, Fr. Michael Heinlein, to come to the United States to solicit funds for mission work and to scout out a place for a foundation.

After several years of looking throughout the country, Fr. Michael settled on the East as the best place to make a foundation. In the meantime, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Louisiana had received monks from St. Ottilien to help them. In 1922 four monks traveled to Louisiana. These would eventually find their way to Newton. By the end of 1923 it looked like the Diocese of Newark, NJ would be open to receiving the Benedictine monks of the Ottilien Congregation. Contact was made with St. Joseph’s parish in Newton, NJ and Rev. Michael Donnelly helped Fr. Michael to locate the Red Gate Farm on what is now Route 206. This farm consisted of about five hundred acres. It had a stone house that dated from about 1849, a frame house and several out buildings as well as a twenty acre lake with its own farm house and barn.

In January 1924 the bishop of Newark gave his consent to the foundation. In early March the property was purchased and on March 15, 1924, Fr. Michael and Fr. Matthias Nett came to take possession of Red Gate Farm.  The stone farmhouse was cleaned and prepared to welcome a monastic community. Several other farm buildings were likewise made fit for the common life. On April 21 the first Mass was celebrated by Bishop Thomas Spreiter, who had formally been the superior of the missionary monks in East Africa. The community was placed under the patronage of Blessed Theresa of Lisieux and called Little Flower Monastery.

In May of the same year, the first band of six brothers arrived at Newton from several monasteries in Germany. By March 1925 the community had doubled in size when monks who were part of a proposed foundation in Washington State were transferred to the new monastery at Newton.  The former farmland was reactivated with dairy cattle; the milk was sold locally. An apple orchard was planted near the lake whose produce was eventually sold or made into cider. Land not cultivated was planted with trees. This project later evolved into the Abbey Christmas Tree farm.

In the late 1920s the whole foundation was threatened with closure, but after the newly elected Archabbot Chrysostom Schmid, O.S.B. made his initial visit to the monastery in 1931, a green light was given to continue with the community. The first thing Father Michael did was to plan for a larger building. It was to house all the community members as well as his dream of a Benedictine Mission Seminary. By October 1932 the building was completed and there were fifteen students in the seminary. In 1934 one of the alumni of this seminary entered the novitiate and the following year saw the first American vocation, Fr. Boniface Cronin, make profession.

In 1936 the community was raised to the rank of a conventual priory by the Holy See. This meant that the community life was stable enough that the monastery could be an autonomous, independent monastery in the Ottilien Congregation. The founder, Father Michael, continued on as superior and the first conventual prior. He continued to put his energy into vocations and in the summer of 1938 a boy’s camp, Camp St. Benedict, was started. It ran, with a hiatus during the war years, until 1978. This camp did bring several vocations to the monastery over the years, including two of its abbots. The camp peaked in enrollment in the early seventies. But by 1978 the nature of camping had changed, there was a shortage of monastic personnel as well as insufficient funds and the camp was closed.

The rapid growth of the community, the arrival of American vocations and the financial woes connected with the Depression brought much stress to Father Michael and in July 1941 he stepped down as superior. He had done his work well and the community now numbered nine priests, fifteen professed brothers and six clerical novices. The responsibility of leadership now fell to Fr. Aquilin Sendelbach, O.S.B., a monk of Münsterschwarzach Abbey in Germany. He was appointed administrator in July 1941. It was Fr. Aquilin who led the community during the war years as well as trying to keep it economically solvent. One fruit of the growth of the community was that in 1945 two Americans were sent to the missions. Fr. Andrew O’Sullivan and Fr. Paul Keohane were sent to the Zululand missions of the Ottilien Congregation in South Africa. Fr. Paul eventually went on to East Africa and taught at a mission station school there.

On June 9, 1947, the priory was raised to the dignity of an abbey. In August of that year an American, Father Charles Coriston, became the first abbot. At the same time permission was granted to place the new abbey under the patronage of Saint Paul, the missionary apostle. The abbey continued to expand. The monastery building of 1932 was too small to hold the monks and the seminarians. In 1948 a temporary structure was put up to house the students. There was an increase of vocations. Some of the German monks now joined their young American confreres, who had gone to East Africa, and took a turn at mission work in South Africa. In the 1950s it was also decided to phase out the farming operation. Some of the brothers who had worked in the barns now became missionaries in Venezuela and Colombia.

In 1960 plans for a new monastery building on a site across the highway and away from its noise were drawn up. In November 1962 the community moved into its new home. At the same time the former monastery building was renovated to house the Queen of Peace Retreat House. Retreats at the monastery had begun in the late 40s and a wooden building had been put up for this program at some distance from the monastery. With larger quarters the retreat movement expanded even further, and school groups were added to the usual weekend retreat groups.

The 1960s were an exciting time for the Church, especially with Vatican II. There was also much happening in the United States as well. The Civil Rights Movement and peace movements were challenging the ideas of many. These trends and experiences affected life in the country and also had their effect on the community of St. Paul’s

Some members of the community became involved in these movements with their concerns for peace, justice and social awareness. A number of members left the community at this time to find new apostolates and new vocations. By 1965 Abbot Charles had led the community for nineteen years. He decided to step down for a younger person. In December 1966 Father Augustine Hinches, O.S.B. was appointed prior-administrator. In September 1970 he was elected as the second abbot of St. Paul’s Abbey. He oversaw the completion of a new seminary building––changing times eventually forced its closure in the early 70s. As the former business manager of the monastery, he continued to keep the community on solid financial footing. The Christmas Tree Plantation expanded tremendously under his direction. Eventually it became a Choose ‘n Cut operation, sales increased, and a regular planting schedule was implemented along with experimentation in various kinds of conifers. Another area that also expanded was the retreat work. The Matt Talbot retreats for men and women in recovery mushroomed and became the dominate feature of the community’s retreat work. While the community was able to stabilize after the departures of the late sixties, it was not able to recover its vocational losses, and few new members joined the monastery.

In March 1982 Abbot Augustine was succeeded by Abbot Justin Dzikowicz, O.S.B., the monastery’s third abbot. He inherited a community that was now small in numbers, but with a sizeable physical operation. A period of self-study was undertaken, and questions of the future began to emerge. At the same time the community opened itself to welcoming monks from the congregation’s monasteries in Africa. They received their orientation to American life at the monastery as well as intensive language courses. They were then placed in American Benedictine colleges for further study. In addition, there was a spirituality program offered here for members of the Ottilien Congregation. It ran twice.

The missionary commitment of the small community remained strong. While one member returned after fifteen years at Inkamana Abbey, South Africa, another was sent there and another was assigned to the young priory in Nairobi, Kenya.

At home the community realized that it was growing older and so a portion of the monastery was renovated to care for the needs of the senior members. In the early 1990s the Abbey Gift Shop that originally had been started in the fifties was also completely renovated.

On December 31, 1996, Abbot Justin resigned. In early January 1997 the community elected Father Joel Macul, O.S.B. as its fourth abbot. He had spent the previous five years at St. Benedict’s Priory in Nairobi and Tigoni, Kenya. At the time of his election there were ten monks living in the abbey. Most of them were in their eighties. The situation regarding the future needed to be faced directly. But first the community celebrated the 75^th anniversary of its founding in 1999 with a celebration on October 2.

In the Jubilee Year 2000 the community took up the task of praying and deciding its future. Several members had died since 1997 making the situation more critical. In the process of discussion and sharing it became clear that very shortly the community would not be able to care for itself. In the autumn of 2000, the members agreed to enter into a process of phasing out the monastic community at Newton. The General Chapter of the Ottilien Congregation in October 2000 heard the community’s petition and reluctantly agreed to the community’s decision and allowed the process of phasing out to begin. The monks began to look for new monastic homes.

In the meantime, a visit of the congregation’s new abbot president, Archabbot Jeremias Schroeder, O.S.B., in January 2001 opened up another possibility for the future of monastic life at the abbey. He supported the community’s decision but did not want to have an empty monastery. He approached Waegwan Abbey in South Korea and asked them to consider taking on the monastery in Newton. Since there is a sizeable Korean Catholic community in the New York-New Jersey area, there would be a ready apostolate for these Korean Benedictine monks.

There was already a special bond between the abbey and Korea. One of its monks, Br. Marinus LaRue, O.S.B. had been a Merchant Marine captain at the time of the Korean War. He had authorized the evacuation of 14,000 refugees from North Korea on his ship the Meredith Victory at Christmas 1950. At the time the rescue was recognized by the new South Korean government and the US Congress, but for the most part had been forgotten over the years. The year 2000 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the evacuation and old memories revived. Now elderly and sick, Br. Marinus was still alive, and his story was revived. Since one monk of Wagewan was a very small boy on board that ship, the Waegwan community was also well aware of the connection. The new abbot of Waegwan came for a visit to assess the situation and ascertain the support of the local Korean Catholic community. In October 2001 the monks of Waegwan Abbey agreed to form a community at St. Paul’s Abbey. In December 2001 the first six monks arrived from Korea with Fr. Bosco Kim, O.S.B. as their superior. A new chapter in the history of the abbey was beginning. In January 2002, on the feast of St. Paul, the American monks formally handed over ownership and care of the abbey to their confreres from Waegwan Abbey.

Assisted in the beginning by three monks from the former American community, the monks of Waegwan have made an effort to adjust to a new country and life style and at the same time to serve the spiritual needs of Korean Catholics living in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. Like the German monks who first came here in the 1920s, the Korean monks too are meeting the challenges of a new country and at the same time keeping the spirit of St. Benedict alive in this part of northern New Jersey.

God’s providential care has its own mysterious ways. One generation faded out and a new one has begun. Out of apparent death, new life takes shape. The Church continues and the Benedictine tradition is being handed on.