St. Michael's Abbey (Orange County, California)

Saint Michael's Abbey is a Norbertine monastery in Silverado, Orange County, California.[4] The members of the community combine a monastic-style life with active priestly ministry.[5]

St Michael's Abbey
Location within California
St. Michael's Abbey (Orange County, California) (the United States)
Monastery information
OrderOrder of Canons Regular of Prémontré
Established1961
Mother houseSt. Michael's Abbey, Csorna, Hungary (Founded 1180)[1]
Dedicated toSaint Michael the Archangel and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
DioceseDiocese of Orange in California
People
Founder(s)Rt. Rev. Ladislaus Parker, O.Praem. (19 Dec 1915 - 3 Jan 2010);[2]
Site
Location27977 Silverado Canyon Road, Silverado, CA, 92676[3]
Coordinates33°40′52″N 117°37′02″W
Public accessYes[3]
Websitehttps://stmichaelsabbey.com/

History

Hungarian Origins

The Abbey was founded in 1961 by seven priests[6] from the Norbertine Abbey of St. Michael in Csorna, Hungary,[7] whose roots go back to the 12th century.[8] The founders originally left Hungary to avoid oppression soon after Communist officials nationalized Catholic schools in 1948.[5][6] On the night of July 11, 1950, word came to the abbey in Csorna that the police would arrive the next day to arrest the confreres and suppress the community. That night, seven priests left, in two groups, to hike across country to the Austrian border. Several of the confreres, arriving in New York in 1952, were welcomed by the Abbey of St. Norbert in De Pere, Wisconsin, with whom they worked for several years, saving money to begin their own monastery.[1]

Foundation in California

At the invitation of Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles, they first moved to Santa Ana, California in 1957 and taught at Mater Dei High School,[6] establishing a monastic community the next year.[8] The founding abbot was the Rt. Rev. Ladislaus Parker, O.Praem.[8] In 1960 the Norbertine Fathers purchased the previous site from Jack Cook, the founder of nearby Cook's Corner.[9]

St. Michael's opened a junior seminary in 1962, which evolved into St. Michael's Preparatory School, a nationally-renowned residential all-boys high school, which closed in 2022 as the monks moved to their new monastery.[10]


The status of Abbey was conferred on St. Michael's in 1984.[1]

Statue of St. Michael at the Abbey

Recent History

The current abbot is The Rt. Rev. Eugene J. Hayes, O.Praem., J.C.D., S.T.L.[11] He was elected for a life-time term as abbot with a mandatory retirement age of 75 years on June 27, 1995 and received the abbatial blessing on September 15, 1995.

More recently, plans have developed for an expansion project to develop a new site, due in part to geological instability at the current Abbey.[12] In the early part of 2018, the building campaign attained its goal of $120 million. The groundbreaking for the new abbey took place at the site of 327 acres in Silverado Canyon on March 18, 2018.[13] As construction approaches completion the date for the dedication of the new abbey church has been set for May 4, 2021.

Bethlehem Priory

In 1997 the abbey founded a convent of Norbertine nuns in Tehachapi, California.[14] On January 29, 2011, the sisters community in Tehachapi was incorporated into the worldwide Norbertine Order. In a ceremony at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Fresno, the first nine sisters made their solemn profession as members of the newly established Canonry of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph, in the hands of the Norbertine Abbot

General, Most Reverend Thomas Handgratinger. Their total membership is 20 sisters, the majority of whom are still in stages of formation before perpetual vows. In that same ceremony the abbot of St. Michael's Abbey, Abbot Eugene, was named the father abbot of the Sisters' Canonry and as such serves as the sisters' external superior.

2021 Move

In January 2021, at the start of the 900th anniversary year of the founding of the Norbertine order, St. Michael's moved from its original location on El Toro Road to its new location: 327 acres on Silverado Canyon Road, 8 miles away. With the new facility came a new worship space as well, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. Both the abbey and the church were dedicated on May 4, 2021.[15]

Diocese of Springfield in Illinois

In a statement on March 1, 2021, the Norbertines of Saint Michael announced plans to establish a community in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois and the creation of the Evermode Institute, a center for Catholic spiritual and intellectual formation. The Institute will be named after St. Evermode of Ratzeburg, a close collaborator of St. Norbert's. [16] The Institute will be located at the site of the former Chiara Center on the grounds of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis in Springfield, which the Diocese took control of June of 2021[17] and will focus on intellectual and spiritual formation of those who teach the faith in the Diocese, such as catechists and parish schoolteachers. [18]

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

In August of 2022 it was announced that the Canons would be caring for the spiritual needs of pilgrims at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, replacing the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. [19][20]

Vocational formation
Canons in the Choir

St. Michael's Abbey accepts members who are between the ages of 18 and 29. The initial four years are spent in the monastery, studying the required novitiate courses followed by a three-year cycle in Thomistic philosophy, after which the brothers are sent to study at St Philip's Seminary in Toronto, Canada, under the direction of the fathers of the Toronto Oratory. Upon completion of the three-year course in theology the students are granted the masters in theology degree. During this period or immediately after there is required a one-year apostolic experience usually at the Abbey's Preparatory School. Following solemn profession all are required to have one year in Rome while living at the Norbertine Generalate and pursuing courses in pastoral theology at the Angelicum, the pontifical university under the direction of the Dominican Order. The association between the Abbey and the Angelicum dates back to 1973. At the conclusion of this formation the brothers may then be ordained as deacons and then priests before beginning to serve in the various ministries of the Order.[21]

Confreres wear the traditional white habit of the Premonstratensian Order.[21]

Ministries

Confreres of the Abbey serve in five dioceses in Southern California: Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego.[21] Priests of the Abbey serve in high schools, parishes, offer retreats and spiritual direction.[21]

Activities of the Abbey also include local parish ministry.[22] An annual summer camp gives local youth a chance to experience the religious life of the monastery.[23]

St. Michael's is an affiliate of the Institute on Religious Life.[21] Roughly half of the nearly 70 members live at the monastery itself with the rest living in dependent houses.[8]

Liturgy
Liturgical Procession

Upon the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, St. Michael's founding Abbot, Ladislaus Parker, O.Praem. (19 Dec 1915 - 3 Jan 2010),[2] decided "to hold steadfast to all that was good in the old and not to shy away either from that which is new."[1] The Abbey is well known for its use of Latin Chant,[24] of which four albums have been released.[12]

References
  1. EWTN, 17 Nov. 2009.
  2. Obituary, 7 Jan 2010.
  3. MassTimes, 16 Nov. 2009.
  4. LA Times, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  5. LA Times, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  6. LA Times, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  7. LA Times, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  8. OC Register, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  9. BikerWear, 2 Jan 2010.
  10. St. Michael's Archangel Institute Parent-Student Handbook 2020-2021 (PDF). Silverado, CA: St. Michael's Abbey. 2020–2021. p. 3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  11. "COMMUNITY MEMBERS". St. Michael's Abbey. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  12. OC Register, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  13. "The New Abbey". St. Michael's Abbey. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  14. "A Life of Prayer in the Tehachapis". Los Angeles Times. July 1, 2000. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  15. Sheet, Tess (2021-05-05). "Impressive St. Michael's Abbey is dedicated". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2021-06-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. "Norbertine Frs. of St. Michael's Abbey, Orange Co., CA announce news of new Community with Springfield, IL – Order of Prémontré". Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  17. Hoerner, Michael. "St. Francis Convent, including the former Chiara Center property, to become part of new institute of Catholic faith formation, religious life". ct.dio.org. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  18. "New institute for Catholic formation and new Norbertine community coming to Springfield - Diocese of Springfield in Illinois". www.dio.org. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  19. "Franciscans Friars | Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe". Retrieved 2022-04-30.
  20. "Norbertines Draft | Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe". 2021-11-19. Retrieved 2022-04-30.
  21. Institute on Religious Life, 17 Nov. 2009.
  22. LA Times, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  23. LA Times, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  24. LA Times, Retrieved 2009-11-11.
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