Saint Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers: Benedictine Abbey in Michigan

Summary: Saint Gregory's Benedictine Abbey has followed a simple lifestyle (work, study, prayer) on a bucolic site near Three Rivers, Michigan, for almost 7 decades.

St. Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: S B Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Saint Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey in southwestern Michigan traces its beginnings to a desire for reviving Benedictine monasticism by a group of seminarians and their professor of apologetics, Rolland Severance, from Nashotah House, a seminary of The Episcopal Church in the southeastern Wisconsin village of Nashotah.

Under the leadership of Canon Vivian A. Peterson, then rector of St. James Anglican Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio, funds were raised for sponsoring training in the Benedictine Rule at Nashdom Abbey, a small Anglican Benedictine community of monks just outside Burnham Beeches in South East England’s Buckinghamshire.

On Christmas Eve 1935 Father Severance began his postulancy at Nashdom (Russian: “Our House”). The country house originally had been built from 1905 to 1906 by English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (March 29, 1859–Jan. 1, 1944) for His Highness Prince Alexis Dolgorouki (March 16, 1846–June 25, 1915) of Michaelovka, South Russia, and his English heiress wife, Frances Fleetwood Wilson (Feb. 18, 1850–Aug. 23, 1919). Of six priests joining Father Severance  between January 1936 and September 1937, three completed postulancy and joined Father Severance, now known as Paul, in a temporary, two-year profession of monastic vows.

Pre-World War II political turmoil, such as the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938, suggested hastened departures from Nashdom by the American monks. In October 1938, Paul returned to the United States. He was dismayed to learn that John T. Dallas, Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire, had retracted permission for founding a priory in the unincorporated, southeastern community of Rye Beach.

Pursuant to an invitation from Campbell Gray, second Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana, Paul, joined by the trio from Nashdom, opened St. Gregory’s House as a monastic house in Valparaiso on March 12, 1939. Opening day fell on the feast day of Pope Gregory I (ca. 540–March 12, 604), commonly known as St. Gregory the Great.

Upon the advice of Reginald Mallett, third Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana, the small monastic community sought land in a more rural setting as conducive to attracting members and following the Benedictine vocation. In March 1946 St. Gregory’s Priory was established on a 126-acre farm with a small lake in the lake-riddled, rural landscape northwest of the small city of Three Rivers in southwestern Michigan. In 1969, the priory became an independent benedictine abbey.

In 2016 Saint Gregory’s will mark seven decades at the bucolic site outside of Three Rivers. Saint Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey observes a daily schedule which emphasizes work, study and prayer, with prayer designated as chief activity.

With no fixed source of income, Saint Gregory’s receives support from various sources, such as donations, gifts and stipends from occasional outside engagements. The Abbey also earns income from sales of wall-size, 13-month calendars as well as of fiction and liturgical publications.

Two guesthouses, St. Anthony’s and St. Denys’, and one guest cottage, St. Benedict’s, are available for guest stays of two days to one week. Guests determine the rate for their stay, as the Abbey refrains from suggesting donations or setting fees and instead welcomes whatever amount is given by guests.

The simple style of living, with outdoor work seasonally attuned, at Saint Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey is centered on acts of worship and pervaded by commitment to the gradually unfolding journey to God. As the author of the Rule of Saint Benedict, a book of precepts, or instructions, for a community of monks living under the authority of an abbot, Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480–March 21, 547) emphasized devotion to God via a realistic lifestyle of moderate asceticism characterized by adequate, but not too much, food and sleep and with disinvolvement in solving social conflicts.

The beauty and peace that emanate from St. Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey offer hope and refuge from the busyness, complications and stresses that bombard lives lived outside of monastery grounds.

St. Gregory's Benedictine Abbey visitor information
address: 56500 Abbey Road, Three Rivers MI 49093-9595
direct mail to attention of: Guest Department
phone: 269-244-5893
hours: 9:30-11:15 a.m.; 2:30-4:15 p.m. Eastern Time
email: guestmaster@saintgregorysthreerivers.org
website: http://saintgregorysthreerivers.org/

marble cross in cemetery at Saint Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: Stephen B. Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

St. Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: S B Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Gregory's_Abbey,_Three_Rivers,_Michigan.jpg

marble cross in cemetery at Saint Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: Stephen B. Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georgia_Marble_Cross_in_Cemetery_at_St._Gregory's_Abbey,_Three_Rivers.jpg

For further information:

Bailey, Simon. A Tactful God: Gregory Dix, Priest, Monk and Scholar. Leominster UK: Gracewing, 1995.

Dunstan, Petà. The Labour of Obedience: The Benedictines of Pershore, Nashdom and Elmore, A History. Norwich UK: Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd., 2009.br />

StGregorysAbbey. "St. Gregory's Abbey - Benedictine Life." YouTube. Oct. 10, 2011.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn-0bUGsiu0

Mark H Kelley III ‏@HMarkhkelley 12 Mar 2015 More The Abbey Church this past Sunday, St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, MI." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/HMarkhkelley/status/575973131543777280

“St. Gregory’s Abbey and Benedictine Monasticism.” Saint Gregory’s Abbey > Articles.
Available @ http://saintgregorysthreerivers.org/sgabenmon.pdf