Please take part in our Reader Survey!
July/August 2006 Features
St. Joseph Abbey
by Judi Russell
When you first walk onto the grounds of St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College in Covington, the mature trees, the 100-year-old monastery and the peaceful atmosphere can fool you into believing that time is standing still at this sacred spot. But the truth is much different; the abbey is a lively place where tomorrow is just as important as yesterday.
St. Joseph Abbey is home to many ministries, including the college, Pennies for Bread, KC Camp Abbey, the Abbey Youth Festival and a Christian Life Center. Like so many other places in our region, the abbey was battered by Hurricane Katrina, which caused roof damage to several buildings and felled many trees. Today, as the abbey repairs its destruction, its members continue to work on projects that make the religious complex a significant contributor to the northshore community.
Benet Hall
Chief among those projects is a four-phase renovation of Benet Hall Auditorium, a theater built in 1960 with all the hallmarks of architecture of that era—concrete, glass, steel and sleek modern lines. The goal of the $2.5 million project is to turn the auditorium into a cultural arts center, the Benet Hall Center for Cultural Arts. As envisioned, artists will be chosen to be in residence while they work at their art, and Benet Hall will provide a venue for those artistic creations to be displayed. The building will also host master classes, says Kit Friedrichs-Baumann, a grant writer and executive assistant to the college’s president-rector. She and Brother Simon Stubbs, a Benedictine monk who is director of communications at the abbey, are spearheading the renovation of the 600-seat theater. Once completed, the hope is that community corporate sponsors will cover the cost of bringing in national acts to the facility. In the meantime, rental by outside groups for their productions will help with the cost of the renovations.
The first phase of the project is underway, and already improvements are visible. The dated tile floors were stripped off, leaving concrete just waiting to be stained, and new greenery was planted in the indoor planters. The lobby has been painted in soft, attractive colors; it will become a coffee shop that Friedrichs-Baumann and Stubbs hope will draw more people to the building. A new air-conditioning system is also part of the upgrade.
Phase II will include updating the theater’s sound, lights and technology; during Phase III the auditorium itself will be renovated, and the chairs will be refinished. Finally, Phase IV will consist of refinishing the stage floors and painting the dressing rooms. The 1960s flavor of the theater will be retained, says Brother Simon, as that period of design is “very current and hot right now. We want to preserve and promote that whole aesthetic.”
The cost of the renovation will be borne by grants and fundraising. At present, the abbey is seeking a $25,000 planning grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. St. Joseph Abbey is a self-supporting entity that does not receive funding from either the Archdiocese of New Orleans or the Benedictine order. “We are not wealthy,” Brother Simon says. Although the abbey does own some 1,200 acres, selling the land to raise money is out of the question. “The land is sacred to us,” he stresses. The land gives the monks ample space to pray and contemplate in private, which is part of their religious practice.
(The abbey’s land is heavily wooded with pine and hardwood trees. Before the hurricane, forestry was a main source of income. Hurricane Katrina caused great destruction—about 65 percent of the pine forest revenue was lost to wind—but forestry will continue to be an income stream.)
Activities Abound
In addition to the Benet Hall renovation, there is a second major happening at St. Joseph Abbey: the temporary relocation of Archbishop Hannan High School to the abbey’s grounds. (See sidebar.) Friedrichs-Baumann says the move to house Hannan High temporarily is in keeping with the Benedictine mission of offering hospitality to those in need. After Hurricane Katrina, the abbey gave shelter to more than 150 people. It also provided a home to displaced residents of Notre Dame Seminary as the seminary’s Carrollton Avenue site in New Orleans was repaired.
The abbey is well known for its Pennies for Bread program. About 2,000 loaves of bread are baked on site weekly and distributed to charitable organizations. The monks bake, cut, bag and deliver the bread. This enables such places as the Brantley Baptist Center, Ozanam Inn and The Salvation Army to use their “bread” money for other needs. The Pennies for Bread program is financed entirely through pledges.
Mass in the abbey’s church, which was built in 1929, also draws many people to St. Joseph’s. Daily mass takes place at 11:15am.; a sung Mass is offered at 11am on Sunday. “The church is packed,” says Friedrichs-Baumann, who grew up nearby and returned to work at the abbey after a stint as an actor in New York.
One of the most-loved activities is simply touring the abbey grounds and buildings. Self-guided tours are permitted for groups of 10 or less; larger groups are asked to make reservations. One of the highlights of a tour is the artwork of Dom Gregory de Wit, a Belgian monk who painted beautiful murals on the monastery refectory’s ceiling, in the church and in the dining hall in the years between 1945 and 1955. Most talked about is the spectacular mural in the dining hall of the Last Supper—a must-see on the tour.
Unfortunately, the breathtaking murals received some damage from Hurricane Katrina. They are scheduled for repair, however, and tours do still include a viewing of the artwork. A stop at the Abbey Gift Shop offers visitors a wide selection of artwork, books and devotional items.
Becoming more popular every year are the programs at the abbey that are geared toward the northshore’s younger crowd. The site is host to a fantastic youth festival that draws between 3,000 and 4,000 young people from throughout the Gulf Coast each year. And many local parents can attest to the popularity of KC Camp Abbey, a summer camp hosted on the abbey grounds by the Knights of Columbus, which fills its camper roster quickly each spring.
The retreats at the abbey for men and women, which are coordinated by the Christian Life Center, are popular, notes Friedrichs-Baumann. Retreatants do more than “get away”—they plug into the abbey’s prayerfulness. In a 2003 interview with IN, Father Matthew Clark, the abbey’s former director of development, said, “The Benedictine rule is all about recognizing the sacred in the daily-ness of life, and the intertwining of the sacred and practical really speaks to people today. It’s interesting how a 1,500-year-old rule can still be applicable to us.”
Perhaps the abbey’s most enduring drawing card will continue to be something intangible: the tranquility you feel when you walk in the space that has been occupied for more than 100 years by people dedicated to the dual purpose of prayer and work. “When you cross over that bridge,” Brother Simon says, referring to the structure that ushers you to St. Joseph Abbey, “you enter another world.”
