Benedectines in North America

The Church in the United States in 1908

Throughout the 20th Century western civilization witnessed dramatic geo-political changes in power and influence just as St. Benedict saw before himself fifteen centuries earlier. Nevertheless, it was in the North American continent, not in Europe, that these political, economic and cultural changes first reached an equilibrium.

The transfer of influence had repercussions for the Church. In 1908, the Church in the U.S. officially shed its status of Mission Country under the responsibility of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome and was recognized as an independent ecclesiastic region with full rights as such. This Catholic Church in America had already initiated noteworthy development in the 19th Century with the arrival of a vast number of immigrants from Europe. In fact, the first monastic communities in the U.S. from European motherhouses rose up as a response to the sacramental and pastoral necessities of these immigrants.

The Benedictines, following in the footsteps of their missionary predecessors, reached America from Germany, Switzerland, England and France. Today the fruit of the labors of these first monastic generations is still visible in the American panorama, rich with a great variety of Benedictine institutions. The schools for the children of immigrants, which were opened up amid so many difficulties, today reach even university and seminary levels.

The same holds true for boarding schools and secondary schools that were for the poorest of the poor and linguistic minorities. Small barren chapels, places of prayer just for the monastic communities, have become abbey-churches famous for their architecture and the quality of liturgy that is celebrated in them. By the end of the 20th Century, farms, mills, and factories in open rural areas have become computerized industries capable of producing everything from cheese and jam to greeting cards and liturgical vestments.