Please join the monks of St. Vincent Archabbey on Wednesday, January 14th for the official opening ceremonies of the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. founder of Benedictine Monasticism in North America. The event will begin with Vespers in the Archabbey Basilica at 7:00 pm and refreshments will follow. Presiding at the opening ceremonies will be the Rt. Rev. Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, O.S.B. Abbot Primate Notker Wold, O.S.B. will deliver the homily. Abbot Notker is the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical College of Sant’ Anselmo, Rome, and representative of the Benedictine Order in Rome. The event is free and open to the public, please contact the Archabbey for more information: (724)532-6600.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and Abbot Primate Wolf, O.S.B.
Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., was the Bavarian Benedictine who established the Order of St. Benedict in North America. Wimmer came to America to evangelize immigrants from Germany and elsewhere, educate priests for the immigrants' pastoral care, and establish Benedictine monasticism in the New World.
Sportsman's Hall, the humble roots of St. Vincent Arcahbbey
Born on January 14, 1809 in Thalmassing, not far from Regensburg, Wimmer was ordained a diocesan priest for the Diocese of Regensburg, but given on loan to the Diocese of Passau. He was baptized with the name Sebastian. In 1832 he joined a small group of monks and monk-candidates to reestablish Benedictine monastic life at the Abbey of Metten, recently restored by King Ludwig I. As a monk of Metten, Wimmer assisted in the subsequent restoration of the Benedictine monasteries of Scheyern, St. Stephen's (Augsburg), and St. Boniface (Munich).
St. Boniface
In 1846, Wimmer led a band of 18 novices to Pennsylvania, where he founded the first Benedictine monastery in the United States at Saint Vincent. During the remaining years of his life, he followed the missionary example of his namesake St. Boniface by preaching the Word of God to countless souls, teaching the Love of Christ to tens of thousands, and establishing 7 Benedictine abbeys, 150 Benedictine parishes, and 75 Benedictine schools in America. At the end of Abbot Wimmer's life, Benedictine priests under his supervision were providing pastoral care for more than 50,000 souls.
The 200th anniversary of Boniface Wimmer's birth in 1809 falls within the Jubilee Year 2008-2009, announced by Pope Benedict XVI to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of St. Paul. The fact that these two celebrations are occurring concurrently is a happy coincidence and reminds us of some salient parallels between the life of Wimmer and the life of St. Paul.
St. Paul
Like St. Paul, Wimmer was a missionary who preached the Gospel over a wide geographic area. He was a community builder who traveled extensively and established Christian communities everywhere he went. He was a man of strong faith whose zeal and single-minded devotion to duty strengthened the Church of Christ. He was a prolific letter writer who through his persuasive correspondence inspired those to whom he wrote to remain faithful in the face of adversity.
Today, Saint Vincent Archabbey in Pennsylvania, founded by Wimmer in 1846, is the largest Benedictine monastery in the world. American Benedictines who trace their roots directly to Wimmer pray and work in more than 20 American states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Colombia, Brazil, China, and Japan.