Expansion

“The question of whether we should think about founding new monasteries in the West now or only later is a vital concern to us. There are reasons for it and against it. I would not be in America if I had not been firmly convinced that there was a need to expand the Benedictine Order and that it was the right time to do so. I am still of that opinion now, because I believe that it is easier to close the gates of a fortress to an enemy when one beats him to the occupation of the same, than to throw him out of the fortress when he had been able to get there first. Discipline also seems to be observed more strictly on the battlefield than at fixed quarters, if the general is not very careless. Thus, I will not miss any opportunity in order to found a new colony of our Order in the West, where the stream of immigrants is now pushing…”

—Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.

—From Boniface Wimmer, Abbot of Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania, translated by Dr. Maria Von Mickwitz and Father Warren Murrman, O.S.B., editor.