“I have also found several Catholic families who now have no religion at all, and whose children are not even baptized. But they are also the ones who live farthest away from the church… How much care I have already Read more

“Pastoral ministry we practice in the two counties, Westmoreland and Indiana, with the exception of a limited region that lies between the two, surrounding the town of Blairsville. In that district, the vicar general of the diocese, Father Stillinger, ministers. Read more

One year after Boniface Wimmer arrived at the future Saint Vincent, he wrote: “We now are three priests, three clerics, three scholastics, and one organist (who also is a teacher), which equals ten. Then there are 24 lay brothers. Several Read more

At the request of the bishop, Fr. Boniface had agreed in the summer of 1847 to celebrate mass for the Catholics of the little town of Indiana once a month. Since this place is located along the road between St. Read more

The truth of these words was also proven in the young monastic community of St. Vincent. If it is true that “all beginnings are difficult,” it was all the more so for Fr. Boniface and his brothers, since they had Read more

“America is not Germany, and there is only one Bavaria. Many of the Bavarian immigrants who live out in the country have only water to drink, which is often not even good. If they knew that at home, most of Read more

“Will I take in yet more brothers? I would indeed be very happy to accept a cartwright, as well as a cabinet maker and a competent bricklayer who would be knowledgeable enough to draw up a building plan and work Read more

“We do suffer a good deal from winter. There is nothing nastier than an American winter. Up until close to Christmas the weather is rather mild. However, then it gets ferociously cold. At times, there is pouring rain, then east Read more