April 17, 2009
April 16, 2009
Wimmer Obituary
I found this great piece of St. Vincent History on the Catholic Answers website, of course we have the original here at the Abbey but it is great to see others sharing the life and mission of our founder Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, OSB:
Archabbot, b. at Thalmassing, Bavaria, January 14, 1809; d. at St. Vincent Archabbey, Beatty, Pennsylvania, Dec. 8, 1887
Wimmer, BONIFACE, archabbot, b. at Thalmassing, Bavaria, January 14, 1809; d. at St. Vincent Archabbey, Beatty, Pennsylvania, December 8, 1887. He made his Classical studies at Ratisbon and entered the University of Munich, to study law. When some scholarship fell vacant in the Gregorianum he took the competitive examination with a view to studying for the priesthood, and, having won a scholarship, he finished his theological course there and was ordained on August 1, 1831. After serving one year as curate at Altotting, a well-known place of pilgrimage, he entered the Abbey of Metten, where Benedictine life had just been restored through royal favor, and made his solemn vows on December 27, 1833. For several years he lived the common life of obedience, and during that time he became interested in the matter of foreign missions. Reading much about the neglected condition of the German immigrants in North America he finally made plans and took steps to transplant Benedictine activity into the United States. Several young men offered themselves to him as candidates; in a characteristic letter he explained to them the difficulties and the sacrifices incidental to the undertaking and asked them to withdraw their application unless they were willing to carry with him the cross of absolute self-sacrifice and to make the will and the glory of God their sole motive in the undertaking.
With five students and fifteen brother candidates Boniface Wimmer arrived in New York (September 16, 1846), where several well-meaning priests did their best to persuade him to abandon his plans, but their prophecies of certain failure did not discourage him. He went to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and accepted some land which Father H. Lemke, for years associated with the Rev. Prince Gallitzin, had offered him. Conditions here in Carrolltown, proving unfavorable for the undertaking, he moved to a place forty miles east of Pittsburgh and accepted from Bishop O'Connor the location where St. Vincent Archabbey, College, and Seminary stand today. Under innumerable difficulties the new foundation slowly grew and prospered. The Louis mission society and several friends and benefactors helped the cause with pecuniary means. The school and the seminary were visibly blessed in their efforts, and the monastic community did much good by looking after the religious interests of the scattered settlers, and organizing them into parishes. Calls for German-speaking priests came from all sides and many bishops offered to the growing Benedictine community German parishes for which they could not provide suitable priests of their own. In 1855 Father Wimmer became the first abbot of the monastery.
Wimmer, BONIFACE, archabbot, b. at Thalmassing, Bavaria, January 14, 1809; d. at St. Vincent Archabbey, Beatty, Pennsylvania, December 8, 1887. He made his Classical studies at Ratisbon and entered the University of Munich, to study law. When some scholarship fell vacant in the Gregorianum he took the competitive examination with a view to studying for the priesthood, and, having won a scholarship, he finished his theological course there and was ordained on August 1, 1831. After serving one year as curate at Altotting, a well-known place of pilgrimage, he entered the Abbey of Metten, where Benedictine life had just been restored through royal favor, and made his solemn vows on December 27, 1833. For several years he lived the common life of obedience, and during that time he became interested in the matter of foreign missions. Reading much about the neglected condition of the German immigrants in North America he finally made plans and took steps to transplant Benedictine activity into the United States. Several young men offered themselves to him as candidates; in a characteristic letter he explained to them the difficulties and the sacrifices incidental to the undertaking and asked them to withdraw their application unless they were willing to carry with him the cross of absolute self-sacrifice and to make the will and the glory of God their sole motive in the undertaking.
With five students and fifteen brother candidates Boniface Wimmer arrived in New York (September 16, 1846), where several well-meaning priests did their best to persuade him to abandon his plans, but their prophecies of certain failure did not discourage him. He went to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and accepted some land which Father H. Lemke, for years associated with the Rev. Prince Gallitzin, had offered him. Conditions here in Carrolltown, proving unfavorable for the undertaking, he moved to a place forty miles east of Pittsburgh and accepted from Bishop O'Connor the location where St. Vincent Archabbey, College, and Seminary stand today. Under innumerable difficulties the new foundation slowly grew and prospered. The Louis mission society and several friends and benefactors helped the cause with pecuniary means. The school and the seminary were visibly blessed in their efforts, and the monastic community did much good by looking after the religious interests of the scattered settlers, and organizing them into parishes. Calls for German-speaking priests came from all sides and many bishops offered to the growing Benedictine community German parishes for which they could not provide suitable priests of their own. In 1855 Father Wimmer became the first abbot of the monastery.
Although he was always willing to help any religious cause to the extent of his means, Father Wimmer repeatedly, in his correspondence with applicants for admission into the order, emphasized the point that the primary object of Benedictine life is not any particular external activity, but the perfect Christian life according to the Rule of Saint Benedict. Often generous to a fault, he never counted the cost where good was to be done, but held fast to this supreme Benedictine law. All his undertakings prospered; he often accepted work that nobody else would undertake because it seemed hopeless, and at the same time, having so spent his available men and means, he turned over the most promising and honorable work to others. At his death five abbeys had grown out of his work and others were in course of formation. Hundreds of priests had been already educated in the schools which he founded, and many a good cause had received a mighty impulse through the Benedictine life which he had spent himself to establish in America.
WALTER STEHLERadio Monk
Father Boniface working with the poor in Calcutta, India with the Missionaries of Charity.
April 14, 2009
Monks on the Radio
Our Father Boniface Hicks, OSB will appear on "The Inner Life" Catholic radio program on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. Click here for more information. The theme of the show will be Evangelization.
April 11, 2009
Holy Saturday
ROME, APRIL 10, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Even the hardest of hearts are moved to pity upon witnessing Christ's suffering during his passion and death, as it reveals the fullness of God's love for mankind, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope said this tonight at the end of the Way of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum. Speaking from atop the Palatine hill, he reflected on the words of the centurion whom St. Mark quotes at the end of his Passion narrative: "The centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, and said: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’"
"We cannot fail to be surprised by the profession of faith of this Roman soldier, who had been present throughout the various phases of the Crucifixion," Benedict XVI explained. "When the darkness of night was falling on that Friday so unlike any other in history, when the sacrifice of the Cross was already consummated and the bystanders were making haste to celebrate the Jewish Passover in the usual way, these few words, wrung from the lips of a nameless commander in the Roman army, resounded through the silence that surrounded that most singular death.
"This Roman army officer, having witnessed the execution of one of countless condemned prisoners, was able to recognize in this crucified man the Son of God, who had perished in the most humiliating abandonment."
Christ's "shameful end ought to have marked the definitive triumph of hatred and death over love and life," said the Pope. "But it was not so! Hanging from the Cross on Golgotha was a man who was already dead, but that man was acknowledged to be the 'Son of God' by the centurion."
The Holy Father noted that, "like the centurion, we pause to gaze on the lifeless face of the Crucified One at the conclusion of this traditional Via Crucis."
God's love
"The anguish of the Passion of the Lord Jesus cannot fail to move to pity even the most hardened hearts," he said, "as it constitutes the climax of the revelation of God’s love for each of us."
"Throughout the course of the millennia, a great multitude of men and women have been drawn deeply into this mystery and they have followed him, making in their turn, like him and with his help, a gift to others of their own lives," Benedict XVI continued. "They are the saints and the martyrs, many of whom remain unknown to us.
"Even in our own time, how many people, in the silence of their daily lives, unite their sufferings with those of the Crucified One and become apostles of a true spiritual and social renewal!"
"Let us pause this evening to contemplate his disfigured face," he urged. "It is the face of the Man of sorrows, who took upon himself the burden of all our mortal anguish. His face is reflected in that of every person who is humiliated and offended, sick and suffering, alone, abandoned and despised.
"Pouring out his blood, he has rescued us from the slavery of death, he has broken the solitude of our tears, he has entered into our every grief and our every anxiety."
The Pope said this tonight at the end of the Way of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum. Speaking from atop the Palatine hill, he reflected on the words of the centurion whom St. Mark quotes at the end of his Passion narrative: "The centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, and said: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’"
"We cannot fail to be surprised by the profession of faith of this Roman soldier, who had been present throughout the various phases of the Crucifixion," Benedict XVI explained. "When the darkness of night was falling on that Friday so unlike any other in history, when the sacrifice of the Cross was already consummated and the bystanders were making haste to celebrate the Jewish Passover in the usual way, these few words, wrung from the lips of a nameless commander in the Roman army, resounded through the silence that surrounded that most singular death.
"This Roman army officer, having witnessed the execution of one of countless condemned prisoners, was able to recognize in this crucified man the Son of God, who had perished in the most humiliating abandonment."
Christ's "shameful end ought to have marked the definitive triumph of hatred and death over love and life," said the Pope. "But it was not so! Hanging from the Cross on Golgotha was a man who was already dead, but that man was acknowledged to be the 'Son of God' by the centurion."
The Holy Father noted that, "like the centurion, we pause to gaze on the lifeless face of the Crucified One at the conclusion of this traditional Via Crucis."
God's love
"The anguish of the Passion of the Lord Jesus cannot fail to move to pity even the most hardened hearts," he said, "as it constitutes the climax of the revelation of God’s love for each of us."
"Throughout the course of the millennia, a great multitude of men and women have been drawn deeply into this mystery and they have followed him, making in their turn, like him and with his help, a gift to others of their own lives," Benedict XVI continued. "They are the saints and the martyrs, many of whom remain unknown to us.
"Even in our own time, how many people, in the silence of their daily lives, unite their sufferings with those of the Crucified One and become apostles of a true spiritual and social renewal!"
"Let us pause this evening to contemplate his disfigured face," he urged. "It is the face of the Man of sorrows, who took upon himself the burden of all our mortal anguish. His face is reflected in that of every person who is humiliated and offended, sick and suffering, alone, abandoned and despised.
"Pouring out his blood, he has rescued us from the slavery of death, he has broken the solitude of our tears, he has entered into our every grief and our every anxiety."
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