Catholicism came to the Oregon Country as shown in an earlier post, in 1838 in response to the presence of Methodist missionaries who arrived four years prior and to a plea from local Hudson’s Bay Company employees allowed by the company to retire in Oregon with their Native American wives. The idea of monastic establishments – and here I will focus on Catholic monasteries – eventually followed though that was not well into the second half of the 19^th century.

A quick aside, while most of the monastic communities are covered, there are the odd one or two missed – the small monastery just east of Eugene for several of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns. Also, one setting covered – the Grotto in northeast Portland – does include a monastery for men of the Servite Order, though since the order is a mendicant order – one who serves among the world as opposed to contemplative orders which try to isolate themselves – I am not sure of how much time those men housed here stay at home as opposed to using it more of a base to range out from.

IDEA OF MONASTICISM

Monasteries in the Christian setting were an idea with beginnings in the early part of the 4^th century when Pachomius began cenobitic monasticism. Monks before this point were ascetic hermits mostly living in isolation on the edge of cities. Anthony moved beyond the pale of civilization into the desert of Egypt living full time in an ascetic manner devoted to religious life. Living a solitary life as did the eremitic monks of the Middle East was difficult for many.

Some of eremitic monks did come together on occasion to pray together, but Pachomius, a former Roman soldier, brought together monks from small communal groups into a federation of monasteries which instead of being a hut or cave were large building complexes housing twenty or more monks. The monastic idea caught on throughout the Christian world with cenobiticism becoming the primary form of monasticism. Eremitic monks still exist but when most people think of monks, they think in terms of cenobitic monasteries.

With both eremitic and cenobitic forms, the purpose of the monk – as for nuns in convents – is to live in a ascetic fashion spending most of their time praying and studying. For a monk in either setting, is described succinctly by an English eremitic monk, Brother Rex. Their monastic mission is to live “expressly for the glory of God, the good of the Church and the salvation of souls.”

monasteries emerge

While many of the early monasteries blossomed in the Middle East – and have subsequently endured centuries of repression, that is if they have survived – Benedict of Nursia founded a monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy in 529. From here, monastic life on the Roman Catholic form emerged, as did the Benedictine order.

Monasteries can house either monks or nuns. In each case, the goal is to provide a retreat from the world in which concentrated prayer and study hopefully brings a fuller awareness of God. The monks are known as “brothers”, though they can become consecrated priests, as well, in order to provide sacraments and confession for their fellow brothers. The monk-priest remains under the charge of his monastical leader – the abbot or prior – while a regular priest would be responsible to a diocesan bishop.  Nuns cannot provide sacraments and require male priests to help out.

orders and societies

Monasteries developed side by side the development of Catholic orders and societies. Both are communities of consecrated life with members professing solemn vows. Secular priests who tend to parishes; mendicants – friars and Sisters working (and possibly living) out of a friary or convent living from gifts given freely as they preach or participate in missionary activities; and the monastics – monks and nuns who live and work inside of monasteries.

The monastics are contemplative orders, men and women who seek to enter their own monastic world so to better contemplate the mysteries of the Faith. Much of their time revolves around prayer both communally and privately, hoping to gain a “not of this World” outlook.

The Benedictine Order began first in 529, though it would not officially gain recognition until the late 19^th century. Another early contemplative monastic order to emerge was the Cistercians in 1098. One of the main branches of this order is the Trappist branch – Cistercian Order of Strict Observance. They believe by the efforts of their intense prayers, the outside world and the church benefits as a whole.

mendicants and societies

Mendicant orders include the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians as well as the Servites.  The friary resembles a monastery with common life and the divine office in choir, but the friars go outside of the monastery, sometimes at great length in both distance and time, in order to accomplish apostolic works – mostly preaching. An even more super form of apostolic clerics arose in the 16^th century, the clerks regular. These communities were formally directed to active ministry not by rule – like the rule of St Benedict for the Benedictines for example. They served in a more mobile fashion than even the mendicant orders – the best example of this order is the Society of Jesus – Jesuits.

Members of religious orders again profess solemn vows while congregations – societies – pronounce simple vows. Solemn are indispensable and perpetual while simple may be perpetual or temporary.

With the societies of apostolic life are men or women coming together for a specific purpose while living fraternally. The societies need approval of a bishop to act within his diocese. Societies in this post would include the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Bishops have the opportunity to form societies within their diocese with the approval of the Vatican, as well. Members of a society of apostolic life can own personal property – not like in orders with their vows of poverty – but normally live in community together.

ENTER THE BENEDICTINES

The Rule of Saint Benedict written towards the end of his life expounds on earlier monastic ideas concurrent within religious communities of the 6^th century. For 15 centuries, his rule has governed the Benedictines. Benedictines work as a collection of autonomous monasteries and convents and not under a single hierarchical organization. It was not until 1893 before an organization began to represent the shared interests of the order. There is no superior general nor motherhouse as found in other orders.

MOUNT ANGEL

The town site of Mt. Angel dates to 1850 with a donation land claim taken out. A railroad reached her with a small stop created in 1881. Given the name of Fillmore after one of the railroad officers, a large number of recent Bavarian immigrants began arriving. They went on to create the large hop fields still present in the region.  Not long after the rails came through, so did Reverend Father Adelhelm Odermatt, OSB (Order of St. Benedict). He arrived searching for a location to establish a daughter house of his home monastery in Engleberg, Switzerland. The Benedictines in Switzerland were searching for alternative monastic locations for their home in case the Swiss followed the French example of closing monasteries.  

The Archbishop of Oregon City, William Gross, knew they were searching for a site and he had what he thought to be the perfect example in Fillmore, recently filled up with Together, they walked up on top of the site of neighboring Lone Butte – Mount Angel, today – and violá.

enter the benedictines

Initially, the Benedictines could not build their dream monastic abbey atop Lone Butte due to the difficulties posed by a still very rudimentary country in the 1880s. They built instead on the lower west slopes of the mount near where the brewery and farm buildings are located today. Odermatt led a building program creating a campus for a school for boys – Mount Angel College, a priory, and a seminary which opened in 1889. A chimney fire in 1892 burnt everything down with only the small chapel in the present-day cemetery for the monastery surviving.

a new town

The town became re-christened as Mount Angel in 1893 in honor of the home monastery for the Swiss Benedictines in Engelberg – translates to Mount Angel. Meanwhile, fundraising extraordinaire, Odermatt found enough funds to begin again in 1899 building this time with stone. Finished in 1903, the next year, the priory became independent of its mother abbey in Switzerland, elevated to the level of an autonomous abbey.

Odermatt, much more at home with pastoral work versus the contemplative monastic life of a cloister, spent the rest of his life working in a parish in Portland dying in 1920. He lies buried today with his brothers atop Mount Angel.

Great Fire

On 22 September 1926, fire once again beset Mount Angel. The fire started supposedly from a short circuit in one of the vehicles in the parking garage. From there, with high winds blowing, it quickly spread to the gymnasium and onto the Abbey Chapel, Sisters’ residence and finally the main monastery building. Very little remained of the campus atop the mountain. Only the little chapel in the cemetery and the printing press building among the only structures left intact.

Resilience

Buildings were slowly rebuilt as capital became available – monastery, gymnasium, college and seminary. The Abbey Church rebuild waited until after the end of World War 2, completed in 1952. A Retreat Center, high school and library became added in the next decades firming up the campus atop Lone Butte.

As the resilience of the monastic community demonstrated, three other priories evolved from missions taken on by monks from Mount Angel – Westminster, British Columbia (priory in 1939 and abbey in 1948), Jerome, Idaho (priory established in 1965) and Cuernavaca, Mexico (priory 1965 and abbey in 2022).

The high school is gone today – the seminary and college remain – but a popular recent addition has been the Benedictine Brewery which started contract brewing in 2013 before opening their own brewery and taproom at the west base of the mountain in 2018 – Benedictine Brewery – Mount Angel Abbey interview.

Visit

A visit today to the monastery atop Mount Angel reveals the magnificence seen by the early Benedictines who trudged atop in 1882. Views open up over much of the Willamette Valley and the northern Cascades of Oregon. The monastery sits back on the east side of the complex allowing more solitude for the monks to continue their contemplations from. Visitors can wander among the various aspects of the campus. Retreats are available at the Retreat Center even for a day.

There is an online map to help the visitor plan a visit to the campus Walking Tour Map – Mount Angel Abbey. On Wednesday through Sunday, a small museum in the basement on the south side of the monastery devotes itself to the history of the abbey – open 10 am – 4 pm. It began as a natural history museum to aid biology classes for the high school.

In the Press Building on the west end of the campus is a bookstore and coffeehouse – open 10 am – 3 pm Tuesday through Friday. And next to here further on the west side is the Monk’s Cemetery. The road from the city of Mt. Angel (the city became incorporated with the abbreviated name for Mount = Mt.) comes lined with the fourteen stations of the cross. The statues come from Munich originally in the late 1880s.

Festivals

A series of festivals bring in many visitors during the year, especially the Abbey Bach Festival at the end of July and the Saint Benedict Festival on the feast day for the saint, 11 July.

QUEEN OF ANGELS MONASTERY

In 1857, atop steep slopes above the Swiss town of Dallenwill – a short distance north of Engleberg, some women gathered to form a monastery. They chose Niederrickenbach, a site of pilgrimage since the 16^th century when a statue of the Virgin Mary was saved by a shepherd in the hollow of a maple tree. As the tree grew around it, a wayside shrine becameerected with the statue inside.

The ladies, through association with the nearby Engelberg Monastery, formally incorporated into the Benedictine Order. The monastery dates to 1862 with a new monastery church built in 1895. Only fifteen sisters remain here today. A group of five nuns traveled to northwestern Missouri in 1874 after a request for help in administering to the German immigrant population near their newly established monastery in Conception, Missouri. The sisters established the Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration a short distance away from Conception in the hamlet of Clyde.

a new monastery

In response to another request for help from their brother monks, Bernardine Wachter brought a group of nuns further west from Conception to Gervais, Oregon. After a short stay in an abandoned saloon, they had their own monastical complex erected in 1888. They went on to establish a boarding school for elementary and high school students and later the Mt. Angel College which initially focused on teacher education.

The sisters established the neighbor Benedictine Nursing Center in 1957 to care for the elderly. Both the academy and college closed in the 1960-1970s. The number of women going into a monastical setting decreased with time until in 2022, those who remained elected to move out of the monastery. Only sixteen sisters remained all over 70 with three over 90. They moved either into Mount Angel Towers or into the nursing center since transferred to the Providence Health System in 1998.

end of an era

The monastery became acquired by Catholic Community Services. They have renovated the dorms into single-unit apartments with shared kitchens, laundry and common rooms serving as temporary housing for families in need. The Shalom at the Monastery retreat center established in 1975 remains open and CCS has also established a food bank. So, even though the nuns have left the monastery, their work continues.

One unique aspect of the campus is the huge sequoia tree rising high above the front of the monastery. The tree was planted there in 1893 by Sister Protasia Schindler, the first American woman to take vows here. She found it as a seedling tree growing by the railroad tracks. Setting it near the monastery to give life to the grounds, she did not know how much the tree would grow. It must have been a popular move because atop Mount Angel, a row of the mighty trees thrives on the south side of the grasses between the monastery there and the seminary buildings.

TRAPPISTS IN WINE COUNTRY

One of 14 Trappist monasteries found in the United States, the Trappist Monastery of Guadelupe Abbey dates to 1955 when they moved from Pecos, New Mexico to the present site a few miles north of Lafayette, Oregon. The abbey had only founded in 1948 when after the end of World War 2 many men joined the monastic life. The Guadalupe Abbey evolved from an earlier Trappist abbey, Our Lady of the Valley Monastery in Rhode Island. The post war crowding led to the development of the new abbey in New Mexico. It was not until fifty years later that plans finally unfolded to transform the ‘temporary’ abbey into a more permanent form.

In 2001, those permanent plans gained approval from the monastic community. Finally, in 2007, a new church and monastery arose in the forests at the western base of the Red Hills of Dundee. The monastery includes about 800 acres overall – compared to only 50 in New Mexico – the former abbey, an actual dude ranch, perseveres as a Benedictine abbey today.

trappist beginnings

The Trappist order emerged in two parts. First, in the early 1100s, some monks thought life for those following the Rule of St. Benedict had become too easy. They sought to re-engage on a scale they thought St. Benedict originally planned in the 6^th century. This movement became the Cistercian Order, named after the original French abbey – Cîteaux Abbey – where the reforms began. Fast forward to the 17^th century and another French monastery at La Trappe where simplicity was doubled down upon and the Trappist order formed, though it was not until 1892 that the official order gained recognition as the Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance – as opposed to the parent order, Cistercians of the Common Observance.

the monastery in the red hills

Trappists used to involve silence. Many got around that by using sign language, but the strict silence traditions relaxed in the 1960s. Trappists also, like other orders, remain responsible to earn money for their own upkeep. This was one of the reasons to move to Oregon was to gain land where they could grow agriculture – the soil in New Mexico was much poorer and sat at over 7,000 feet elevation. The Trappist today rely on bookbinding – including for the Oregon supreme Court, baked fruitcakes and creating a storehouse for local vintners who need the space. With an average age of over 70, they had to give up farming.

The church is beautiful, built in ways reminiscent of both Japanese architecture and the simplicity of the Shakers. Monk cells – around 35 monks live here – link up with the church. Some monks keep to themselves in the older eremitic fashion. There is a guesthouse for those who would like to do retreats, plus a bookstore and trails leading up into the forested heights above the abbey.

It is important to remember, the essential components of Cistercian monastic life revolve around prayer, manual labor, religious study, separation from the world and denial of self-will.

BRIGITTINES

The newest Catholic monastery lies west of the town of Amity sitting above the floodplain of the South Fork of the Yamhill River. The Brigittine Order – The Order of The Most Holy Savior – founded in 1370 follows the Rule of St. Augustine. The Rule of St. Benedict, borrowing from earlier works such as the Rule of the Master, focused on community life, prayer and work. Comprised of 73 chapters, this work developed in the 6^th century.

In contrast, the Rule of Augustine is much shorter, comprised of only 8 chapters focusing on community and love versus strict regulations. The Augustinian teachings on religious poverty and community life – written at the end of the 4^th century – influenced the later Rule of St. Benedict. Augustinian rule became more popular with many later orders such as the Dominicans allowing greater mobility and teaching roles outside of the monastic setting. Service is seen over personal holiness which represents a dramatic departure from earlier views of monasticism where monasticism was seen as an escape from worldly concerns.

the order

The Brigittine Order started with Saint Birgitta of Sweden in 1344 – the order officially recognized in 1370. The order spread throughout Sweden and Norway until it saw repression in 1595 during the Protestant Reformation. At their height in the 16^th century, there were 80 Brigittine monasteries – open to men and women. Virtually all in northern Europe were destroyed during the Reformation. According to the original rule of St. Brigit, each monastery had a small group of monks acting as chaplains under the governance of an abbess. Nuns were strictly enclosed, but the monks were also preachers and missionaries. Each monastery fell under the jurisdiction of the local bishop though ruled by the abbess.

monastery of our lady of consolation

Here in Oregon is the only Brigittine monastery – Monastery of Our Lady of Consolation – in the world for men only. There used to be others, but they dispersed after European wars of the 19^th century. Monks here do not ordinarily get the choice to become priests. There is a chaplain who provides mass for the monks. They do not take part in any missionary work outside of the monastery choosing to balance their lives between work and prayer. Silence is a major factor of life here, though no vows of silence exist. According to their website, silence and solitude are essential characteristics of contemplative love for Jesus. “Lovers want solitude above all things, they want to be alone with their love, and so the contemplative life, it is a life of solitude and prayer. Without solitude there is no contemplation.”

The monastery supports itself through the sales of “artisan chocolate” with truffles, chocolates and fudges of all sorts. Work outside of the monastic enclosure is not engaged in. The monastery slowly changes with the time since it started in 1976. The chapel is small compared to the huge abbey church atop Mount Angel but serves the monks perfectly here.

SERVITE MONASTERY AT THE GROTTO OF OUR SORROWFUL MOTHER IN PORTLAND

Servites constitute a mendicant order like Dominicans or Franciscans. They live together but are out in the world accomplishing work purposes given to them. There exists a Servite monastery in Portland though its life is not like what you find on Mount Angel.

sanctuary of our sorrowful mother

In 1923, Father Ambrose Mayer made good on a childhood promise to build a shrine to Mary, the mother of Jesus, in payment for his own mother’s recovery from a dangerous childbirth. He used his entire savings for a $3,000 deposit on the property here at Rocky Butte in northeast Portland for the project. The deposit secured the land from the Union Pacific Railroad Company who owned the property and was selling for $48,000 in total for the former quarry site. Workers proceeded to carve a fifty-one-foot-high cave into the face of a 110-foot-high cliff face placing a replica of the Pieta inside as what became the Grotto Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother began to take shape.

The Grotto was completed first in 1925 before plans for a monastery with room for 25 monks was built in 1936. Original plans for the enormous shrine shrank back with time and lack of funds. There was to be a twin-towered basilica with seven shrines – one for each of the founding men of the Servite Order – all to be connected with the Grotto below by a grand staircase. The staircase was replaced in 1929 by an elevator which connected the lower and upper areas.

servite order

Servites – the Order of Servants of Mary – have worked as an order since 1233. Seven cloth merchants in Florence withdrew from life – their families, professions, city – to take up a life of poverty and penance on Monte Senario. All seven would gain sainthood in the Catholic Church in early 1888. The order is one of the original mendicant orders; mendicant meaning an order vowing to poverty, while traveling and living in cities ministering and preaching to the poor. Servites avoided a pure monastic model – members are not monks but friars – living an often-itinerant lifestyle depending upon the goodwill of people to whom they preach. Goal of the order is to sanctify its own members and then all of mankind through devotion to Mary.

visiting

When visiting the Grotto, like at other monasteries, the monasteries themselves are not open to the public. Attached churches, guest retreats and some other places may be, but the monasteries are not. The monastery here was rebuilt in the mid-1980s – the local fire department had condemned the building – and downsized for 12 friars.

To visit the Grotto cave – called the Plaza level – and the 1955 Chapel of Mary, there is no fee. If you want to take an elevator up to the upper gardens where not only does the monastery lie deep in forests a century old, but there are also several shrines to visit. The gardens above are a magnificent escape from the hecticness of the city beyond. The fee for the upper grounds is $10.95 with those over 65 getting in for a dollar less.

MONASTERY OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

Driving around the Montavilla neighborhood of Portland, you can come across a former monastery which belonged to the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood. This contemplative monastic order was established in 1861 in the town of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. Sister Catherine Aurelia gained permission to transform her own home into a temporary monastery after undergoing a series of manifestations. Reverend Louis Brosseau, the priest in charge of the Sacred Heart parish in Gervais visited his sister in Quebec who had become a member of the new order. Impressed by what he found, upon his return to Oregon, he urged Archbishop William Gross to invite now-Mother Aureila to send nuns out west.

Mother Aurelia oversaw the arrangements and traveled herself to Gervais arriving on 4 November 1891. The nuns initially occupied the former Benedictine monastery – those nuns had already moved to Mount Angel and their new home, Queen of Angels Monastery. The next year, Mother Aurelia, at the Archbishop’s request, decided to relocate the monastery to the outskirts of Portland. Father Brosseau also relocated at the request of the Archbishop. He located the site and purchased the land.

coming to portland

Another group of nuns – another society – had moved up to nearby Beaverton about the same time – Sisters of the Most Precious Blood. Because of the similarity of names, Archbishop Gross had the newcomers change their name to the Sisters of Mary of Oregon. They are still going strong on their campus on the west side of Beaverton. (A further complication is the name of St. Mary’s Academy in downtown Portland. This high school is run by a completely different order, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a teaching society also founded in Quebec dating back to 1843 with the high school dating to 1859. The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary also ran the former Marylhurst University in suburban Lake Oswego)

Sisters of the most precious blood in portland

The monastery had almost been completed by the time the Sisters came north arriving on 24 June 1892. By agreement, the monastery church also served as the parish church presided over by Father Brosseau. The church served both purposes for almost 19 years before the Ascension Parish Church and School was dedicated in 1909 five blocks to the north of the monastery. A new residence was built forming an E-shape incorporating the chapel into the middle in 1922-1923.

Due to reduction in numbers of women entering into the monastic realm and the age of women remaining, the monastery closed in 1994 with the last five sisters retiring to other convents in the east. The monastery operates today as the St. Andrew Memory Care Center.

DUCHOVNY DOM MONASTERY

A monastery of the Byzantine Catholic Church, formerly known as the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church. The Byzantine Catholic Church is an autonomous Eastern Catholic church using Byzantine Rites but in full communion with the Vatican. This branch of Catholicism dates to 1646 when Rusyns in the Carpathian Mountains returned to communion with the Pope. It is the only self-governing Eastern Catholic metropolitan church in the United States. The Byzantine Catholics remain separate from the larger Ukrainian Greek Catholic church. Priests in Europe are allowed to marry but – as in all Orthodox traditions – those chosen for higher roles in the episcopate are celibate as are monks.

The Orthodox and Latin churches both have strong monastic traditions. Duchovny Dom comprises a recent development founded in 2013 by Archpriest Joseph Stanichar. The monastery sits high in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon about highway between Weston and the Spout Springs Ski Area on Oregon Highway 204 occupying 77 acres – 40 remain forested. Pilgrims are welcome to visit for retreats. Women are welcome too but keeping with Eastern tradition they need to cover their heads in church and dress modestly.

the monastery

Monks at Duchovny Dom spend many hours in both liturgical and personal prayer with the katholikon – main monastic church – and their private cells. They also spend time working with a garden, chickens, goats, ducks, sheep and bees. They also raise dogs – both King Charles Cavaliers and a sheep dog cross between a Pyrennes and Maremma. The monastery resulted from property owned by Father Joseph. He spent a career of 20+ years as a priest in the US Air Force. While stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, he bought a 6-acre parcel as a mountain retreat in 1980. That retreat transformed into today’s monastery which presently houses up to eight monks. A whole channel of YouTube posts shows examples of a Divine Liturgy at the katholikon.