More Would Be Welcome

“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 from it. I would also be happy to have a carpenter, if he would have an inclination to the monastic life and would be content with what we have. Actually, I could use many more, such as a Benedictine or two from Metten or another Bavarian monastery; or priests who would take monastic life seriously, or good and well-versed theologians or philosophers who have obtained their degrees. If I would get the means to set things up properly, in such a manner as a large farming operation requires, I could support 50 men here, both priests and brothers; and if there should be more, they could easily be placed elsewhere. Anyone who might desire admission should contact Court Chaplain Müller in Munich (at Maxburg), in order to get more information. However, no one should imagine that there are mountains of gold here.”

—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.