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| May 2004 |
| Blue Cloud celebrates 50 years as
an abbey |
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Blue Cloud Abbey recently celebrated
the 50th anniversary of having its status raised to an abbey.
On March 21,1954, the Feast of St. Benedict, South Dakota’s
only Benedictine monastery of men saw that happen. The action,
at that time, meant that it had become independent from the
founding monastery, and had an abbot of its own.
In 1950, St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana had established the
monastery in order to continue the work it had begun among Indian
people of the Dakotas in the previous century.
Around 20 monks from the Indiana monastery were already stationed
on four reservations in North and South Dakota. Another twenty
were eventually assigned to establish communal life and construct
the monastery near Marvin.
“It was unusual for a monastic foundation to begin with
so many members,” said Brother Benet Tvedten, OSB. “The
size of the community was a factor in determining Blue Cloud’s
becoming an abbey within a short time.”
In 2000, Blue Cloud Abbey celebrated the golden anniversary
of its founding date, July 24, 1950.
The community is now under the leadership of Abbot Thomas Hillenbrand.
A variety of retreat groups and individual retreatants continue
to be drawn to the abbey. Some groups schedule their retreats
a year in advance. In the past year, 157 people made private
retreats and 48 groups have held retreats at Blue Cloud.
For people seeking solitude, two hermitages are located near
the lower pond. Each contains a bed, rocking chair, and desk.
Camp Mahpiyato, in a wooded ravine beyond the abbey, is available
for families and groups. It provides a kitchen, dining area,
dormitory, showers and toilets.
The American Indian Culture Center attracts people to view its
Indian artifacts, and provides information relating to Native
America culture and values.
Recently Father Stanislaus Maudlin, the center’s director,
was in Washington, DC to speak at the opening of an exhibition
of photographs taken by Benedictine missionaries on the reservations
in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The abbey’s vestment studio provides ecclesiastical vesture
for Roman Catholic and protestant parishes of the area.
The priests who assist Catholic parishes on the weekends are
not as numerous as they once were and the shortage of ordained
monks has meant the abbey can no longer provide pastors for
Milbank and Revillo.
Father John McMullen remains the pastor of St. Mary Parish,
Wilmot and Father Wilfrid Lambertz is pastor of St. Charles
Church in Big Stone City as well as the chaplain for the hospital
and St. William Home in Milbank.
The monks of Blue Cloud also continue to have a presence at
the Resurrection Priory in Guatemala. The priory was founded
by Blue Cloud Abbey in 1964. In time, it will become independent
from Blue Cloud Abbey, and will elect its first abbot. |
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