By Fr. Livius Paoli, O.S.B.
St.
Benedict of Oxford is the present mother house of the Benedictines of
Detroit,
the corporate name of the American priory of the Sylvestrine
Congregation
of the Order of St. Benedict.
It is situated on the northeast corner of Oakland County, about thirty
miles due north from Detroit, Michigan. At 1300 hundred feet above sea
level, it is the highest point in the southern half of Michigan’s Lower
Peninsula. Looking south from the top of the hill one can see as
far as the Detroit Metropolis on a clear day. The place has all the
mystique
and the lore of monks seeking height and solitude for their monastic
home.
The Order of St. Benedict of Montefano, now called the Sylvestrine
Congregation,
O.S.B. was founded in 1231 in Italy by St. Sylvester Guzzolini, a
priest
from Osimo in central Italy. To a renewed and rigorous observance of
the
Rule of St. Benedict for Monks, Sylvester added two, at the time novel,
pieces of legislation: he instituted a central governance for the
several
monastic communities he started and introduced for his monks external
apostolate
in the service of the people of God by the preaching of the Word and
pastoral
ministry. In the middle of the last century the monks undertook
the
evangelization of much of the island of Ceylon now called Sri Lanka.
It was that missionary spirit that brought them to America. In 1910 two
monks at the invitation of the bishop of Wichita settled among the coal
miners of southeastern Kansas and for eighteen years
they ministered to
their spiritual needs with great zeal and remarkable success. Their
equally
important aim, however, in coming to America was to establish the Order
in the Land of Opportunity. They soon realized that that opportunity
was
passing by in their present situation, as the coal mining industry in
Kansas
was fading and the region of their missionary activities was becoming
spotted
with ghost towns.
They sought after and searched for a promising site for the home of
their
Order. In 1928, Bishop Gallagher of Detroit welcomed them into the
diocese.
Either on account of their missionary spirit or for other practical
reasons,
they began their life in Detroit by assuming the direction of three
parishes
in the city. One, however, was a new parish with land and the
opportunity
for the establishment of the Order’s headquarters. The parish was
started
under the name of St. Scholastica in northwest Detroit. The Great
Depression,
however, thwarted for a time the fulfillment of the monks’ plans and
dreams
for their Order.