Saint John's Abbey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota is a Benedictine monastery affiliated with the American Cassinese Congregation. The Abbey was established following the arrival in the area of monks from Saint Vincent Abbey of Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1856. Saint John's is the second-largest Benedictine abbey in the Western Hemisphere, with 153 professed monks. John Klassen, OSB, currently serves as abbot.
Monks from the Abbey serve parishes in the Diocese of Saint Cloud and in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
The Abbey's Hill Museum and Manuscript Library houses the world's largest collection of manuscript images. This library is also the home of the St. John's Bible, the first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible to have been commissioned since the invention of the printing press. The expenses associated with the Bible project have been over $6.5 million.
The community operates The Liturgical Press, St. John's University, and St. John's Preparatory School, all located on the grounds of St. John's in Collegeville. The grounds also house the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, the Episcopal House of Prayer (Diocese of Minnesota), a Minnesota Public Radio studio, and the Saint John the Baptist Parish Center. The 2500 acre (10 km²) grounds of the Abbey comprise lakes, prairie, and hardwoods on rolling glacial moraine, and has been designated as a natural arboretum.
The Abbey is the location of a number of structures designed by the modernist, Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer. The Abbey Church, with its banner bell tower, is one of his most well-known works. In its basement is a chapel that contains the relics of Saint Perigrine.
The Abbey is also the setting for Kathleen Norris' popular collection of essays on Christian spirituality, The Cloister Walk.
