Wimmer Wednesday. Recently I went to Kansas on a visitation and came near to arriving either injured or dead. Twenty-nine miles from Steubenville all coaches without exception leapt over a 65 foot embankment. The baggage cars went into a thousand pieces. The sleeping coaches were burnt. Our coach, the next Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. During my absence in Minnesota, and while on visitation to the various priories, troops were levied and four of my lay brothers were drafted into the army though they had already made solemn profession. This forced me to hurry to Washington to see the President and from him Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. In the holy sacrifice of the Mass, we find real consolation in a life full of trouble and suffering, of crosses and adversity. Let us meet each other there, under the cross. There is little time, though we must always take courage, gather fresh hope, and have confidence Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. Quietly and undisturbed, we continue what we have begun, intent upon gradually raising our educational institutions to higher levels and bringing them to the standards they should have so that they will not be merely schools for the training of a few people for our Order and for Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. It is not the building but the people who make up the monastery, who live the monastic life together.—Boniface Wimmer, Letters of An American Abbot, March 30, 1861.
Wimmer Wednesday. The government in Washington very recently permitted us to have our own post office on our monastery grounds so that now our address is simply “St. Vincent, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.” The large Pennsylvania Railroad Company likewise has lately given us, on our monastery property, a freight station on Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. I greatly fear that we are moving toward very evil times, which the Christian must consider not just as an accident or as the result of political forces, but rather as a judgment for the evil and a purifying trial for the good. Human wisdom cannot avert it, Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. The very latest news is that we finally have a brewery. On Christmas, we shall for the first time drink our own beer. Only after great difficulties did I complete the building. I had to get barrels and other necessities partially on credit. Construction of the two convents Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. Everywhere there is a need for priests, both in the East and especially in the Far West. Often I must turn down an opportune offer for the simple reason that I do not have the people or do not want to divide the work of my priests. Churches Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. It is hardly necessary to report that before the election I told all present that they were under no obligation to choose me, but rather that they were bound by oath to elect the person whom they considered most worthy, because not only the future of the monastery Read more…