Refuge for the
Wanderer,
Home for the
Wonderer
Story: Dr. Jerome C. Foss | Photos: Liz Palmer
Snowflakes leisurely fell from a dark sky as though dancing in the bright lights illuminating the Basilica. Standing back-to-back with Boniface Wimmer’s statue, kept warm upon his perch by a black and gold scarf, I gazed at the beautiful church before me with awe. I wondered whether it was possible that I might work here at Saint Vincent College, a place steeped in tradition, where Heaven pours forth its blessings like the gentle flakes falling all over its campus?
Such were my reflections the night before my interview to join the SVC faculty back in 2011. My thoughts then, much like now, focused on the duration and constancy of North America’s first Benedictine monastery and college. The man whose statue stood behind me founded this community in 1846. He wanted to make sure the German immigrants who had moved to America would have a sturdy rock to steady themselves in a land famous for its constant motion and business.
As I watched the snow pile up, I thought about the College’s founding. 1846! That was thirty years before my home state of Colorado joined the Union. Growing up, I marveled at the majesty of nature and the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, but human history was hardly more than a school subject. And now, here I was, standing on ground in Westmoreland County that had been cultivated by Benedictine monks since before the Civil War. Their way of life was deeply embedded in this place. It had a real history. And now I might be offered the opportunity to be part of that history and tradition.
One of my fondest memories of that interview back in 2011 was my conversation with then-President Norman Hipps, O.S.B., P’61, C’66, S’69.
We were talking about the Ten Benedictine Hallmarks, which I had dutifully memorized in the weeks leading up to my trip. Sizing me up, Brother Norman smiled a bit before he asked, “With which Hallmark do you most identify?” I must have looked a little puzzled because he clarified, “Which is your favorite? Which do you think is most important?”
“Stability,” I answered. And I meant it. Benedictines are famous for thinking in terms of decades and even centuries, which does much to dilute the temptation we all feel to live according to the times. That Benedictine disposition, what we often call the Hallmark of stability, is one of the keys to Saint Vincent’s success in living out its vocation. My answer to Brother Norman reflected my sincere appreciation for the stability of Saint Vincent and the Benedictine Order.
Like all the Hallmarks, stability’s importance is rooted deeply in The Rule of Saint Benedict, which opens with a comparison of different kinds of monks. Benedict is critical of those monks who “always wander and are never settled.” Lacking stability, these monks become “slaves to their own pleasures.” To avoid this enslavement, Benedictines take a vow of stability—
Saint Vincent
College is
something unique to their order. Each monk connects himself to a particular abbey and promises to live a common way of life with his confreres. This commitment is one of the reasons why the Order of Saint Benedict has been around for more than fifteen centuries and why Saint Vincent Monastery and College have been standing poised on their hills in Westmoreland County for more than seventeen decades.
The other Benedictine Hallmarks are related to stability. Community, for example, cannot exist without stability. Similarly, obedience, discipline, humility, and stewardship make most sense in the context of a stable community. Prayer, love of Christ and neighbor, and conversatio morum all require stability if they are to bear any fruit. And how can one be hospitable until one has born fruits to share? This is why those who are instable are rarely able to offer hospitality, even if they wish to do so. It’s an important lesson: without stability, there can be no hospitality.
The attraction of the Benedictine Hallmarks to those of us who are not monks lies in the enduring wisdom of Benedict’s Rule. Constant wandering, never being settled, and enslavement to pleasures are things we are all called to overcome. We all need stability, precisely because we need all the goods that stability makes possible. Saint Vincent and other Benedictine abbeys set examples for us to follow.
Famously, Aristotle taught that humans are political animals. By that, he meant that we depend on one another, that we require family, friendship, and community. Aristotle never encountered Christianity, but his observation of human nature is reinforced by the Bible, which tells us that, “It is not good for man to be alone.” After creating Eve from the rib of Adam, He tells the pair to be fruitful and multiply—go have a family! Live in community! Tend the garden! Listen to my Word! Be stable!
Stability was shaken by the Fall. Adam and Eve left the garden and became wanderers, and their children have been tempted to wander ever since. One of Jesus’ most famous parables is about the prodigal son who rejects his father’s home and takes up the lifestyle of enslavement to pleasures. Finally recognizing the despair that accompanies his wandering, he returns home and begs mercy. His father greets him and offers him hospitality. The father’s house is a place of stability, and therefore a place of forgiveness and celebration.
Saint Vincent College is like the father’s house. Its connection to the Benedictine Order grounds it solidly on the traditions of Catholic and liberal education. The Benedictines safeguarded and reproduced the books of antiquity after the fall of the Roman Empire. At a time when chaos reigned, the Benedictine monasteries were places of refuge and safety. Wanderers could count on finding hospitality within their walls. And students could count on finding the joys of learning within their classrooms. This, like so much else, remains true.
I often ask students why they have chosen to be a college student. The most common answer is that they believe it will lead to a good career. When asked what they mean by a good career, they almost always say that they want a job that is fulfilling and that will enable them to provide for a family. They intuitively understand that a stable career is necessary for family life. And because they, with good reason, believe having a family will lead to happiness, it takes little to convince them that stability and happiness go together.
Though I am one who thinks that the most important reason to go to a liberal arts college is to receive the sort of education that is good for its own sake, I am sympathetic to students who think of college as a career investment. Though the intrinsic value of liberal education is not at odds with the more utilitarian goods that it makes possible, so long as priorities are kept straight. I was blessed to have received a liberal education, and I agreed to undertake it as an 18-year-old with the hope that it would make possible gainful employment. The tradition of liberal learning has been around since Socrates made his famous turn from the study of the heavens to the study of himself. He initiated what has become a stable 2000-plus year tradition. And though it has often had to defend itself against charges of impracticability, it has proven itself to be like a perpetual flame that even the most totalitarian regimes have failed to smolder.
Saint Vincent College brings together the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, the Benedictine Wisdom Tradition, and the tradition of liberal education. Taken together, these provide a firm ground for education. This is evident in several ways across campus; the SVC Core Curriculum rests upon them. Students take courses in theology, philosophy, history, American government, literature, natural science, social science, mathematics, and writing. They take interdisciplinary seminars that purposely bring all these strands together, helping our students join our tradition of learning. Our liberal arts curriculum provides them with a map of wonder so that they might not wander. And if they do wander, like the prodigal son, they’ll know Saint Vincent is always their home, and we’ll welcome them back anytime.
Our president, Father Paul Taylor, O.S.B., reminds us of his mother’s motto when it comes to caring for others: Love them, feed them, and want them around. This is a great expression of the Benedictine Hallmarks. Saint Vincent has been doing just this since 1846. And Benedictines have been doing this since the fifth century. We are, indeed, heirs to a noble tradition.
And so long as Saint Vincent and similar institutions remain stable, we can count on the blessings to fall about us like those angelic flakes that drew me to wonder as I watched them adorn our Basilica, that great beacon that stands as a constant reminder that we have a home.
