Mount Angel Abbey

Mount Angel Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located in Saint Benedict, Oregon, United States, northeast of Salem. It was established in 1882 from Engelberg Abbey, in Switzerland. The abbey, located on the top of Mount Angel, a , has its own post office separate from the city of Mt. Angel. As of 2021, the abbey is home to approximately 51 monks.

History

1882–1903: Establishment

Mount Angel Abbey was founded on October 30, 1882, by Benedictine monks who immigrated to the United States from Engelberg, Switzerland. It was conceived by Father Adelhelm Odermatt, a monk of Engelberg Abbey who was working in Missouri.

Five years after the abbey's foundation, the monks opened their school in 1887 under the name of Mount Angel College. In 1926, a second fire destroyed the monastery, forcing the community into private homes and the nearby parish school and rectory.

In 1965, two new monasteries were started from Mount Angel Abbey: Ascension Priory in Idaho, and Our Lady of the Angels Abbey in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

1904-1910 Thomas Aquinas Meienhofer
1910-1921 Placidus Fuerst
1921-1934 Bernard Murphy
1934-1950 Thomas Aquinas Meier
1950-1974 Damian Jentges
1974-1980 Anselm Galvin
1980-1988 Bonaventure Zerr
1988-1997 Peter Eberle
1997-2001 Joseph Wood
2001-2009 Nathan Zodrow
2009-2016 Gregory Duerr
2016–present Jeremy Driscoll

Seminary and School of Theology

Mount Angel Seminary, which was originally part of the now closed Mount Angel College, serves numerous western dioceses and has approximately 170 students. The college was originally composed of seven schools, but as the college turned its focus toward the seminary, the two remaining schools are the liberal arts college and the Graduate School of Theology. In 2006, a new seminary building received a Best Sustainable Award for Oregon and Washington.

Library

The Mount Angel Library was designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, built in 1970, and renovated in 1980. The library is used by both seminary students and theology students and contains 240,000 physical volumes and 100,000 electronic volumes (30% religion, 10% philosophy, and 60% history, art, music, and more), offering the largest theology collection in the Northwest United States. In addition to a wide range of books, the library also has an archive of medieval manuscripts dating back to the 12th century. The library has digitized multiple manuscripts, many from England, France, and Italy, through the Ethiopic Manuscripts Digitization Project.

Museum

The Mount Angel Abbey Museum is a collection of assorted artifacts, including mounted animal dioramas, rocks and minerals, serendipitous objects, antique liturgical vestments, religious items, and Civil War memorabilia.

Benedictine Brewery

In 2018, the third monastic brewery in the United States opened at the abbey. Brewing is common among Trappists, but is also part of the Benedictine tradition—which is the order that occupies the Mount Angel Abbey, a monastery secluded on a wooded butte above the small farming town of Mount Angel. Abbey monks now brew beer.