History of St. Procopius Abbey

1. Metten

Benedictine monasteries grow much like natural families when children leave home to set up life on their own. Monks from St. Michael's Archabbey in Metten, Bavaria, first arrived in America in 1846 and founded St. Vincent Archabbey (Latrobe, PA).

2. Latrobe

In 1885, a group of monks of St. Vincent's formed a new monastic community in Chicago in order to pray and work among the Czech and Slovak immigrants so numerous in the American Midwest.

3. Chicago

The monks took over the direction of a parish named in honor of St. Procopius, and the community selected this saint as the patron of their new monastic house. Known for his great charity, Procopius had founded a monastery in Bohemia during the eleventh century and after his death became the first formally canonized saint of Czechoslovakia.

His feastday is observed on July 4.

4. Establishing the schools

The newly-established Benedictine community of St. Procopius decided over the next decades to found a high school, college, and seminary, and to operate a press.

5. To Lisle

After 1901, the schools operated in Lisle, 30 miles southwest of Chicago, where the monks had purchased some farmland. In 1914, the Abbey too was transferred to Lisle. The press remained in Chicago until 1975 when it ceased operation.

6. Growth

Blessed by many vocations, St. Procopius Abbey was able to found two new monastic communities: St. Andrew's Abbey in Cleveland, Ohio, and Holy Trinity Priory in Butler, Pennsylvania.

As the need for pastoral work among Slavic-language immigrants gradually diminished, the monks directed their efforts ever more to educational work. The growth of the schools eventually led the monks to decide upon the creation of a separate monastic complex. They believed that a new church and monastery would give them a stronger Benedictine identity, improve the contemplative character of their lives, and help them better serve the students and public of the mushrooming suburbs.

7. The new monastery

Planning for the church and monastery began in 1959, and construction commenced nine years later. In June 1970, the monks moved into their first real home. The new Abbey was cited by the American Institute of Architects as one of the most outstanding buildings in the United States for 1973.

8. The Abbey Schools today

The Abbey schools, formerly St. Procopius Academy and St. Procopius College, now called Benet Academy and Benedictine University, have a combined enrollment of some 4,000 students. While the name Benet is an English form of Benedict, the university's name links it with the monastic community's Benedictine heritage.

9. Work for the Church

Many of the monks are engaged as faculty or staff members at one of these two coeducational institutions. Several monks are assigned to parishes in Illinois and Wisconsin, and some serve the Church as hospital chaplains, missionaries in the Abbey's Taiwan priory, or in other capacities.

"Your marvelous works are beyond compare."

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