Subiaco Abbey is an American

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

located in the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...

valley of

Logan County, Arkansas Logan County (formerly Sarber County) is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,131. Its two county seats are Booneville and Paris. History The Arkansas General Assembly defined the stat ...

, part of the

Swiss-American Congregation The Swiss-American Congregation is an association of Benedictine monasteries founded in 1881 in the United States, as a part of the international Benedictine Confederation of monasteries. History During the 19th century, a number of Benedictine ...

of Benedictine monasteries. It is home to thirty-nine Benedictine monks. The abbey and the preparatory school it operates,

Subiaco Academy Subiaco Academy is an American Roman Catholic day and boarding school for boys founded in 1928. Serving grades 7-12, it is part of Subiaco Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Subiaco, Arkansas. Earlier schools at the priory and abbey dated to 188 ...

, are major features of the town of

Subiaco, Arkansas Subiaco is a town in Logan County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 572 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Subiaco Abbey, which is located there, and which donated in the early 20th century for a townsite and railroad connec ...

. It is named after the original Subiaco, Italy, where the first monastery founded by

Saint Benedict Benedict of Nursia (; ; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a Great Church, Christian monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old ...

was located. The Abbey has developed commercial enterprises including breeding of black Angus cattle, a brewery and taproom, and its own hot sauce. While located within the territory of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock The Diocese of Little Rock () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church for Arkansas in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdioce ...

, the Abbey has independent authority as an institution of the Benedictine order.

History

In 1877, the

Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad The Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad was a railroad that operated in the state of Arkansas, United States, between 1853 and 1875. It came to national prominence when its bonds were the subject of a scandal involving Republican presidential can ...

(LR&FS) owned thousands of open acres in Arkansas that it wished to develop with settlers. Deciding to offer land only to German Catholics, the company approached

Martin Marty (bishop) Martin Marty (born James Joseph Alois Marty; January 12, 1834 – September 19, 1896) was a Swiss-born Benedictine missionary and Catholic bishop in the United States. Marty was the first abbot of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana; the first ...

, O.S.B., the Abbot of St. Meinrad Abbey in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, with a proposal. The railroad offered land in western Arkansas, south of the Arkansas River, if the Abbey would establish a monastery and school there to serve the German immigrant population the railroad was bringing into the region. The abbot negotiated with the railroad for a grant of to establish a Benedictine monastery for

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

s, and an additional for the foundation of a monastery for Benedictine

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

s. This agreement was supported by Edward Fitzgerald, Bishop of the

Diocese of Little Rock The Diocese of Little Rock () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church for Arkansas in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Oklahoma ...

, who needed German-speaking priests to serve new immigrants and their families in his diocese. Abbot Marty assigned three monk-missionaries from St. Meinrad to start the foundation in

. They arrived there on March 15, 1878: Father

Wolfgang Schlumpf Wolfgang Schlumpf (January 20, 1831 – August 1, 1904) was a Swiss-born Benedictine monk and missionary in the United States who is credited as founder of Subiaco Abbey in western Arkansas. He immigrated to the United States in 1862 after bein ...

, O.S.B., assigned as prior; Brother Kaspar Hildesheim, O.S.B.; and Brother Hilarin Benetz, O.S.B.. The foundation was developed as St. Benedict's

Priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

. Due to financial and personnel difficulties, St. Meinrad requested assistance from its mother house in Switzerland to aid the growth. In the fall of 1887, its founding monastery,

Einsiedeln Abbey Einsiedeln Abbey () is a Catholic monastery administered by the Benedictine Order in the village of Einsiedeln, Switzerland. The Abbey of Einsiedeln is one of the most important baroque monastic sites and the largest place of pilgrimage in Swit ...

, responded to appeals from the foundation in Arkansas, and sent Fr. Gaul D'Aujourd'hui with eight candidates for the monastery. They became known in the tradition as the Eight Beatitudes. In 1886 the monastery was raised to a conventual priory, independent of St. Meinrad Abbey. In 1891 it was named as an abbey by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

, receiving the name Subiaco Abbey in honor of St. Benedict's original monastery in Subiaco,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The first

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

, Ignatius Conrad, O.S.B., was elected in March 1892. He was a monk from Einsiedeln Abbey who had been serving at the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City–Saint Joseph The Diocese of Kansas City–Saint Joseph () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northwestern Missouri in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolita ...

in western Missouri. Under his leadership, construction of a new abbey was begun in 1898; it was made from local sandstone. In December 1901, just as the construction was nearing completion, the original wooden abbey, located about a mile away, burned to the ground. The monks transferred to the Subiaco Abbey site. This building was gutted by fire in 1927 and was rebuilt. The third Abbot of Subiaco, Paul Nahlen, O.S.B., obtained

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

's blessing for the construction of the present church on the Abbey campus. The church was completed in 1959. This act is depicted in one of the 182 stained-glass windows in St. Benedict Abbey Church. Over the years, the Benedictine monks at Subiaco have pursued various spiritual, agricultural, and commercial endeavors. First were

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

works, then they established Subiaco Academy, a

university-preparatory school A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily design ...

. In 1927, Subiaco Abbey took its first step in establishing what would become Corpus Christi Abbey in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi ( ; ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, Texas, Nueces County with portions extending into Aransas County, T ...

. This institution closed in 2002. The monks have been brewing beer for their own consumption since the 1920s. In 2018, they began to sell their beer to the public, under the name "Country Monks Brewing." They made an overseas foundation in 1964 in Nigeria, but it had to be closed in 1968, due to the

Biafran War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Biafran War, Nigeria-Biafra War, or Biafra War, was fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence from N ...

there. The Benedictines made a subsequent foundation, Santa Familia Priory, in

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

in 1971. It closed in 2002. In January 2023, Jerrid Farnam was arrested for public intoxication, theft of property, criminal mischief, breaking or entering, and residential burglary for breaking into the Abbey, vandalizing the

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

altar, and stealing two boxes of relics containing 1,500 year old relics related to Catholic

saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

. Both boxes were recovered by police.

List of Abbots

# Rt. Rev. Ignatius Conrad, O.S.B. (1892-1926) # Rt. Rev. Edward Burgert, O.S.B. (1926–1939) # Rt. Rev. Paul Nahlen, O.S.B. (1939-1957) # Rt. Rev. Michael Lensing, O.S.B. (1957–1974) # Rt. Rev. Raphael DeSalvo, O.S.B. (1974–1989) # Rt. Rev. Jerome Kodell, O.S.B. (1989–2015) # Rt. Rev. Leonard Wangler, O.S.B. (2015–2022) # Rt. Rev. Elijah Owens, O.S.B. (2022–present)

Subiaco Academy

David Wright, Ed.D., was appointed in 2018 as Subiaco Academy Headmaster. He was previously Assistant Vice-President and Athletic Director of

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about ...

in Pennsylvania. In 2019 he instituted a new “Parallel Curriculum” within the Academy to focus on “integrity-based and socially responsible leadership.”

Student body

The Academy has a diverse student body of American students and international students; the latter come from China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Curaçao, and South Korea. In 2020, the Academy was ranked by Niche as the #1 Catholic High School in Arkansas. The student body is composed of 60% boarders, 30% students of color, and 9% international students.

Media references

Great Big Story Great Big Story is a media company producing micro-documentaries based in London. Launched in October 2015 by CNN, the company created 2,600 videos, being published on various websites such as Facebook and YouTube. Videos produced by the company ...

, a media company of CNN, produced a segment on the Hot Sauce operations of the Abbey. American Angus Association produced a segment on the Angus Farm operations of the Abbey.

KTHV KTHV (channel 11) is a television station in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, affiliated with CBS. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. and maintains studios on South Izard Street in downtown Little Rock and a transmitter atop Shinall Mountai ...

, a media company in Little Rock, Arkansas, produced a segment on the new CountryMonks Brewing and the Hot Sauce operations of the Abbey.

Priests with credible allegations of abuse

Catholic institutions in Arkansas have received allegations of child abuse by priests and monks assigned here. Since 2018 they have provided public information about these allegations. On September 10, 2018 the

released a report disclosing the names of clergy who at some time served in Arkansas and who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse. As it is independent of the diocese, on January 24, 2020 the Abbey of Subiaco released its own report; it disclosed the names of three deceased monks with established allegations of abuse: Nicholas Fuhrmann, Francis Zimmerer, and Patrick Hannon. Two additional deceased monks were listed as "Of Note": Fr. Timothy Donnelly for "multiple incidents of inappropriate touching", and Fr. Bede Mitchel as a "credible allegation of abuse" by the Diocese of Fort Worth (TX). Neither Subiaco Abbey nor a third party independent investigator could find any evidence related to the latter allegation against Fr. Mitchel. A criminal investigation is pending of Fr. Jeremy Myers, a former monk who left Subiaco Abbey to become a diocesan priest in the Diocese of Dallas (TX) in 1991.

Gallery

Wolfgang_Schlumpf_Older.jpg Wolfgang_Schlumpf_with_Monks.jpg Ignatius_Conrad_as_new_Abbot.jpg Ignatius_Conrad_with_Subiaco_Monks_in_1894.jpg Edward_as_Abbot.jpg Edward_newly_Elected_1925_with_Monks_%26_Abbot_Phillip_Ruggle.jpg Abbot_Paul_Nahlen.jpg Abbot_Paul_and_Abbot_Edward_with_Community.jpg Subiaco Abbey Aerial.jpg Subiaco Abbey NE.png Subiaco Abbey NW.jpg Subiaco Inner Court NW.jpg Subiaco Inner Court.jpg Subiaco Abbey Church Interior.jpg

References

External links

Subiaco Abbey and Academy homepage

Subiaco Abbey Online Store

Guide to the New Subiaco Abbey Postcard and Prayer Card Collection
, Collection of postcards depicting New Subiaco Abbey in Subiaco, Arkansas, housed in the University of Dayton's U.S. Catholic Special Collection.
Order of Saint Benedict
{{DEFAULTSORT:Subiaco Abbey And Academy 1878 establishments in Arkansas Benedictine monasteries in the United States Buildings and structures in Logan County, Arkansas Religious buildings and structures in Arkansas Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock Christian monasteries established in the 19th century German-American culture in Arkansas Roman Catholic churches completed in 1959 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States