BENEDICTINE
452
BENEDICTINE
peared at an early date. In 1493 a monk from
Montserrat accompanied Columbus on his voyage
of discovery and became vicar-Apostolic of the West
Indies, but his stay was short, and he returned to
Spain. During the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries one or two Enghsh monks, and at least one
of the Maurist congregation, worked on the .American
mission: and at the time of the French Revolution
-negotiations had been commencetl bj^ Bishop Carroll,
first Bishop of Baltimore, for a settlement of English
Benedictines in liis diocese, which, however, came to
notliing. The Benedictine Order was first estab-
lished permanently in .\merica by Dom Boniface
Wimmer, of the Abbey of Metten. in Bavaria. A
number of Bavarians had emigrated to America, and
it was suggested that their sriritual wants in the
new country should be attended to by Bavarian
priests. Dom Wimmer and a few companions ac-
cordingly set out in 1846. and on their arrival in
America they acquired the church, a house, and
Newark, New Jersey, founded 1857, with a school
of 100 boj's; Maryhelp Abbey, Belmont, North Caro-
Una, foimded 1885, the abbot of which is also %icar-
.\postolic of North Carolina; attached to the abbey
are two colleges and a school, with over 200 students;
St. Procopius's Abbey, Chicago, founded 1887, with
a school of 50 boys and an orphanage attached;
St. Leo's Abbe}^ Pasco County, Florida, founded
1889; this abbey has a dependent prion.- in Cuba;
St. Bernard's Abbey, Cullman County. Alabama,
founded 1891, with a school of over 100 boys; St.
Peter's Priory, established in Illinois in 1892 and
transferred to Muenster, Saskatchewan, N. W. T.,
in 1903; St. Martin's Prior}', Lacey, the State of
Washington, founded 1895.
(IS) The Swiss American Congregation. — In 1854 two monks from Einsiedeln in Switzerland came to .\merica and founded the monastery of St. Meinrad, in Indiana, serving the mission and conducting a small school for boys. It became a priory in 1865,
Maryhelp .4.bbet, Belmont, N. C.
-some land belonging to the small mission of St. Vin-
cent, Beatty. Pennsylvania, which had been founded
some time pre\iously by a Franciscan niissionarj'.
Here they set to work, establishing conventual life,
as far as was possible vmder the circumstances, and
appl}-ing themselves assiduously to the work of the
mission. Reinforced by more monks from Bavaria
and their poverty relieved by some munificent dona-
tions, they accepted additional outhnng missions
and established a large college. In 1855 St. Vincent's,
which had already founded two dependent priories,
was made an abbey and the mother-house of a new
congregation, Dom Wimmer being appointed first
abbot and president. Besides St. Vincent's Arch-
Abbey, the following foimdations have been made:
St. Jolin's Abbey, CoUegeville, Minnesota, founded
1856, mainly through the generosity of King Lud- Tsng I of Bavaria; connected with the abbey is a large ■college for boys, with an attendance of over 300; St. Benedict's Abbey, .Atchison, Kansas, founded
1857, said to possess the finest Benedictine church in .\merica, built in the style of the Rhenish churches of the tenth and eleventh centuries; there is in con- nexion a school with 150 boj's; St. Mary's Abbey,
and in 1870 was made an abbey and the centre of the
congregation which was canonically erected at the
same time. The first abbot, Dom Martin Marty,
became, in 1879, first Vicar .4postolic of Dakota,
where he had some years pre\iously inaugurated
mission work amongst the Indians. The following
new foundations were made: Conception Abbey,
Conception, Missouri (1873), the abbot of this abbey
being president of the congregation; New Subiaco
Abbey, Spielerville, .Arkansas (1878); St. Benedict's
Abbey, Movmt Angel, Oregon (1882); St. Joseph's
Abbev, Covinaton, Louisiana (1889); St. Mary's Ab-
bey, Richardton, North Dakota (1899); St! Gall's
Prior}', Devil's Lake (1893), the last two communi-
ties subject to the same abbot. To all these monas-
teries are attached numerous missions, in which the
monks exercise the cure of souls. They also have
several seminaries and colleges.
(19) The Congregation of St. Ottilien. — This congre- gation, specially established for the work of foreign missions, was commenced in 1884 in the .\bbey of St. Ottilien. in Bavaria, under the title of the "Congre- gation of the Sacred Heart". It was not then Bene- dictine, but in 1897 was afiBliated to the Cassinese
