Oregon -- Mount Angel Abbey's Monks Welcome Visitors To Share The Calm

ST. BENEDICT, Ore. - On a nearby hilltop, Native Americans once gathered to contemplate the wonders of nature.

They called it Taalamaho, the Mount of Communion.

On a clear day one can see, from the 300-foot-high knoll above the Willamette Valley, four giants of the Cascades - Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams and Mount Rainier.

Taalamaho still is a spiritual place.

Crowning the hill now is the Mount Angel Abbey, a 117-year-old community of Benedictine monks.

The monks enjoy company: A sign on the front door of the abbey church reads, "We welcome your presence!"

Travelers of all faiths are invited to attend religious services, browse the museums and gift shop, tour the jewel-box library - and stay a while in the abbey's Retreat House.

"All we ask is that visitors remember that this is a quiet, prayerful environment," says Brother Cyril Drnjevic, the abbey's public-relations director.

A recent traveler said it this way: "The loudest thing you'll hear are the bells ringing." Still, friendship and recreation are important parts of life here, says Brother Cyril.

If it's entertainment you're seeking, try the town of Mount Angel, just down the hill from the abbey. About 40 miles south of Portland, it's the site of the Mount Angel Oktoberfest, one of the Northwest's favorite folk festivals. (This year, it was Sept. 16-19.)

There is Mount Angel, the town. And there is Mount Angel, the abbey. They are close neighbors, but with different postal designations.

To make things more confusing, the Queen of Angels Monastery, a community of 60 Benedictine sisters, is in downtown Mount Angel. The monastery dates to 1882, the same year Mount Angel Abbey was founded. (Queen of Angels also welcomes visitors.)

But it's the hilltop abbey, with its serene, campuslike setting, that draws most travelers. One reason is the abbey library, a gem designed by the late Alvar Aalto, the celebrated Finnish architect. It is the only Aalto-crafted library in North America.

There are 60 monks in residence here - plus 25 members of the same Benedictine community who are serving in a dependent priory, the Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles, in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Mount Angel Abbey traces its beginnings to an ancient Benedictine monastery at Engelberg, in central Switzerland. Engelberg. Translation: Mount Angel.

In the 1870s, Engelberg's monks were worried about religious suppression. The monks decided it was time to establish a place of refuge in a free land, just in case.

So, one of the Engelberg monks, Father Adelhelm Odermatt, was sent to America to search for a suitable site. In 1882, he reached Oregon and came to a place called Lone Butte. This was the spot, he decided, for the new Engelberg.

Mount Angel's monks live by a code written by St. Benedict. It is called "The Rule," and it covers all aspects of monastic life, from prayers to clothing.

"Life here is a gentle and regular rhythm of prayer and work," says a printed guide to life at the abbey.

Monks gather in the abbey church six times a day to pray together. They share in work that runs from kitchen chores to desk jobs. And there is time for private prayers and exercise. The abbey has a running track and an athletic field.

"I am very happy here," says Brother Cyril, the former Ronald Drnjevic.

Brother Cyril, 40, born in Portland, reared in Bremerton, was a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa before entering the abbey.

"I met several missionaries in Africa and began thinking about the religious life," he says.

So, apparently, are many other young men.

While enrollments have declined in recent years at many seminaries in the United States, Mount Angel is having no such problem.

More than 120 seminarians, almost twice the number of six years ago, are studying here today.

"There is a real interest in the spiritual life," says Father Odo Recker, Mount Angel's vocations director.

"I can't explain it, I don't have a good theory. But it's happening. Maybe the new millennium is bringing a time of renewal."

About the Mount Angel Abbey Library . . .

The more than 250,000 volumes - including manuscripts dating back as far as the 13th century - would be the envy of any religious library.

But it is the building itself, an architectural masterpiece by Alvar Aalto, that enchants visitors.

Aalto designed the library's interior with gentle curves, natural woods and soft light beaming from cone-shaped skylights.

Aalto didn't know that Mount Angel Abbey existed when he was asked in the 1960s to accept the library project.

"We need you," wrote Father Barnabas Reasoner, then the abbey's librarian.

Aalto, it turned out, admired the Benedictines' devotion to books and libraries over the centuries. That may have been enough.

"It's a treasure," says Paula Hamilton, the library's director. "We are very lucky."

Visitors agree.

IF YOU GO

Finding your way there

Getting there: Mount Angel is about 40 miles south of Portland.

If driving south on Interstate 5, take Exit 271 (marked Woodburn and Silverton) and zig-zag southeasterly through Woodburn on Highway 214. (The directional signs can be confusing for following Highway 214 through Woodburn).

Turn right from Main Street in downtown Mount Angel to reach the Mount Angel Abbey. On the way you'll pass a towering church, St. Mary Parish. The abbey is on a hilltop only a mile or so farther. Additional Information: Mount Angel Abbey, 1 Abbey Drive, St. Benedict, OR 97373. Phone: 503-845-3030.

Mount Angel Retreat House: 503-845-3025.

Queen of Angels Monastery, 840 South Main St., Mount Angel, OR 97362. Phone: 503-845-6141.

Mount Angel Oktoberfest, P.O. Box 437, Mount Angel, OR 97362. Phone: 503-845-6882.