Of course, these grandiose plans had to be adapted to reality very soon. The beginning was full of hardship. “Oh there is a lot of work”, sighs father Ullrich in a subsequent letter and tells of miserably long horse rides “without saddle or bridle”, and children, which “knew no commandment of God, and have never confessed.”

Even the hosts father Ullrich had to bake himself.
After some time, things began looking up. In 1870 St. Meinrad obtained the status of an abbey. The first three abbots Martin Marty (1834-1896, Schwyz), Fintan Mundwiler (1835-1898, Zurich), and Athanasius Schmitt (1860-1932, Bayern) were all born in Europe and spoke German.

And also in later years, contact to the mother abbey never ceased. Einsiedeln has a presence in St. Meinrad. In one corner of the abbey, which was built around 1900, stands a copy of the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, a gift presented by the mother abbey in celebration of the 100 years jubilee. In another corner a wooden side altar can be found with a baroque enclosed relict (a finger bone) of Holy Meinrad. Today, the congregation of St. Meinrad counts more than 90 monks – more than Einsiedeln.

Father Timothy himself has been in Einsiedeln several times, but never longer than a few weeks. He was also there during summer of 1984, when pope John Paul II. visited the abbey. Einsiedeln, he says, has always been an agreeable stop on the way between Ireland, where his family is from, and Rome. Since 1970 a tradition of regular student exchanges between St. Meinrad and Einsiedeln exists. All theology students from the abbey's own seminary spend a year of their education in Einsiedeln, and vice versa. And they develop close bonds of friendship. Father Timothy laughingly calls them a “Mafia”.

Suddenly, father Timothy jerks to a standing position, as if he had forgotten an important appointment. He had to go, “schnell! (quickly)”, he says, there would be “Arbeit! (work)” to do in other places too. He bids us farewell with his firm handshake and leaves us to the quiet of the library, where the carpets muffle all sounds.

 
Literature and Sources

• Kleber, Albert, History of St. Meinrad Archabbey 1854-1954, St. Meinrad 1954.
• Saint Meinrad Archabbey Archive, Pioneer Letters (ab 1853).
• Yock, Peter, The role of St. Meinrad Abbey in the formation of catholic identity in the diocese of Vincennes, 1853-1898, Evansville 2001.