Behind the Cloister

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S A SPECIAL REPORT BY THE OLYMPIAN AND THE NEWS TRIBUNE

BEHIND the CLOISTER

Father Kilian Malvey takes cover from the rain outside the Saint Martin’s Abbey Church doorways in November. Malvey, who has been at Saint Martin’s since he was a high school student, now teaches classes on religion and English. “If I could do nothing else but teach, I would be perfectly happy,” Malvey said. “It would be heaven on Earth.”

The monks of Saint Martin’s Abbey, their numbers dwindling, continue to thrive in the way of life each has chosen STORY BY LISA PEMBERTON Staff writer

PHOTOS BY TONY OVERMAN Staff photographer

A

t least four times a day the bell tower sounds at Saint Martin’s Abbey Church in Lacey.

The alto chimes are calling the Benedictine monks, their black cassocks reaching nearly to the floor, to prayer service, including a daily Mass.

“The bells remind us that it’s time for communion with God,” explained Father Marion Nguyen, 38, a parish pastor in Bellingham before he became a monk in 2012. “Prayer is a means to the end, and that end is communion with God.” On this day, the monks quietly file into the chapel in the shadow of the historic Old Main building at Saint Martin’s University for the noon service.

Sunshine streaming through stained glass windows throws red, amber and purple jewels of light onto the sanctuary’s floor and wooden chairs.

The monks bow their heads to the altar.

“I rise before dawn, and cry for help,” they recite, reading from the 1963 Grail translation of Psalms. “I have hoped in your word.”

The lives of the nearly 30 monks are built around a rigid schedule of prayer, worship and singing. Each has taken vows of obedience, stability (a promise to stay at the abbey) and “conversatio morum,” which loosely translates to “aid to searching for God.” The order’s main job is to serve others, both inside and outside the monastic community. They pray for those who do not pray and for those who can’t.

“Our vocation is even more of a calling of inward holiness,” said Brother Edmund Ebbers, 66, who grew up in southwestern Idaho and has been at Saint Martin’s since 1968. “To find our Creator and to try and become one with him.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Father Alfred Hulscher enters last year’s Good Friday service. In the mid-1950s, he applied to join the monastery after attending four years at Saint Martin’s High School and two years at its college. “In those days, it was a rather stark introduction into being in a monastery,” said Hulscher, 81, who made his final vows to Saint Martin’s Abbey in September 1957. “... We were told we weren’t to talk to students and not to talk to the priests.”

INSIDE STEEP DECLINE: From monks to priests to “religious brothers,” fewer people are choosing to join a consecrated life. Page 8

ONLINE Go to theolympian.com or thenewstribune.com to watch a video of interviews with the Saint Martin’s monks, view more photos and explore the abbey’s art collection.

“We are the founders, and I consider us the principal supporters of the university. ... Our monastic predecessors would be proud of where Saint Martin’s Abbey and University are today.”

Abbot Neal Roth, 76, on the connection between Saint Martin’s Abbey and Saint Martin’s University

2 • Sunday, April 5, 2015

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S RECREATION

Abbot Neal Roth bakes a batch of his popular “hobo bread” muffins at the abbey’s Lambert Lodge on Cooper Point during a day off in November. With his responsibilities filling his days and nights, Roth said he enjoys his alone time on Mondays in the kitchen and spending time reading.

Brother Ramon Newell directs members of the Saint Martin’s University dragon boat team during practice last April in Budd Inlet. Newell said he enjoys being on dragon boats because it requires a team effort. “You all have to work together,” he said.

A mix of incredulity, surprise and delight fills the Saint Martin’s Abbey exercise room as a billiards shot by Father George Seidel, from left, stops on the edge of the pocket while Brothers Aelred Woodard and Nicolaus Wilson watch during a Saturday evening game in December.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Members of a semicontemplative community, the monks hold part-time jobs as well. Some teach or are staff members at the university.

“They are a constant reminder of who we are, what we stand for and where we came from,” said Dean Decker, a 20-year-old psychology and religious studies major at the university. “... The

best pieces of advice I have ever gotten was from a man in a black robe at Saint Martin’s.”

Other monks hold jobs that support the Roman Catholic monastery and its guest house.

“We don’t just sit and read books and contemplate and think big thoughts,” said Father Peter Tynan, 46, who grew up in Nebraska and has been at the monastery for about 12 years.

Many people assume life behind

the monastery’s cloister is silent, stress-free and filled with saints.

Not so, says Abbot Neal Roth, who heads the monastery and is chancellor of the university.

Monks are normal people, he notes. They bicker. They play practical jokes. They watch movies. Sometimes, they drink beer. Sometimes, they make mistakes.

“You don’t come here to escape,” said Tynan, who serves as

university chaplain and the abbey’s vocations director. He also works in the special collections and archives areas of the library.

“You come because you found out this is the best place to work on your salvation.”

MINNESOTA AND TACOMA ROOTS

In 1891, Father William Eversmann, a monk from Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville,

Minnesota, arrived in Tacoma.

He was sent at the request of German-speaking Catholics who established Holy Rosary parish in Tacoma. Within a few years, Saint John’s sent enough monks to South Sound to establish a monastery and school.

In 1894, the monks paid just under $7,000 at public auction for 571 acres in an area known as CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

“I wanted to start a ‘traditional’ family life by being married, having children, owning a house and having a career. I later realized the monastery is somewhat like a ‘traditional’ family — that I live with my brothers and love them even though I do not like some of them. In our families, we all have that.

In the monastery life, I have a career, while I still live a life of prayer.”

Brother Mark Bonneville, 32, on why he chose to stay at the monastery

Brother Bede Nicol, from left, Abbot Neal Roth, Brother Ramon Newell, Brother Mark Bonneville, Father Benedict Auer and Brother Edmund Ebbers watch the Tom Cruise action movie “Edge of Tomorrow” during a weekly movie night in November in the monastery.

Sunday, April 5, 2015 • 3

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S WORKING

“Praying together in community, being with people in like mind who have the same interest.

It’s all about spirituality.”

Brother Edmund Ebbers, 66, on his favorite part of being a monk Brother Edmund Ebbers chops firewood at Lambert Lodge, where he is in charge of building maintenance. Ebbers also enjoys chopping firewood as a hobby and selling the wood to raise money for the abbey’s oblate program, which introduces lay persons to the monastic life.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 Woodland, according to “This Place Called Saint Martin’s 1895-1995,” by the late Father John C. Scott of Saint Martin’s Abbey.

About a year later, they established a private, all-boys Catholic boarding school that became Saint Martin’s University.

The monks taught many of the classes and ran a farm that provided food for the school.

By 1965, the college became coeducational and in 1972, Saint Martin’s opened extension programs on Fort Lewis Army Post and McChord Air Force Base.

One of the biggest changes at Saint Martin’s came in 1980, when the first nonmonk was hired to lead the college. John Ishii, an alumnus of Saint Martin’s High School and College, served until 1984.

Ishii was charged with

diversifying the college’s programs while helping it recover from longstanding debt that was “strangling” the college, according to Scott’s book.

‘A RATHER STARK INTRODUCTION’

Over the years, the college, a nonprofit separate from the abbey corporation, expanded. But the monks continued to play a key role in the college.

“People always ask me what made Saint Martin’s what it was, and I always say three things: the monks, the monks, the monks,” said Tom Barte, president of the Saint Martin’s University Alumni Association. He graduated in 1968.

In the mid-1950s, Father Alfred Hulscher applied to join the monastery after attending four years at Saint Martin’s High School, and two years at its college.

“In those days, it was a rather

stark introduction into being in a monastery,” said Hulscher, 81, who made his final vows to Saint Martin’s Abbey in September 1957. “... We were told we weren’t to talk to students, and not to talk to the priests.”

During his first year at the monastery, Hulscher said he wasn’t allowed to look at newspapers or have visitors, CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Brother Ramon Newell, second from right, is assisted by Saint Martin’s students Sierra Steinbrecher, third from left, of Tumwater and Hope Fotter of Lacey as the three help students last April in the mail room at Saint Martin’s University. “The mail room is kind of a paradox,” said Newell. “It’s out of the way and people don’t really think about it too much, unless, of course, something goes wrong.”

Father Kilian Malvey teaches his Introduction to Hebrew Scripture class last November at Saint Martin’s University. In his early years at Saint Martin’s, Malvey received permission from the abbot to take one college class, then sneakily continued until earning his degree.

Brother Mark Bonneville dumps standing water from the roof of the Saint Martin’s Abbey Church last November while clearing leaves from the drains.

4 • Sunday, April 5, 2015

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S TRADITION OF FAITH

“I think I would have done well in the military.

As a monk, I’m very much a man of peace.

But I also thrive on structure.”

Father Peter Tynan, 46, on where he thinks he would be if he hadn’t become a monk

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 except for his parents, who were allowed to visit for an hour on one Sunday a month.

Over the years, Hulscher was trained to fill needs at the school, from high school principal to counselor. To meet his responsibilities, he earned five college degrees, including master’s degrees in library science, German and counseling psychology.

For decades, he had little say in what his job was.

“In those days, if the abbot asked you to do something, you did it,” Hulscher said.

In his decades at the school, Father Kilian Malvey, Saint Martin’s long-serving English and religious studies instructor, has held a wealth of positions — college registrar, dean of men, dean of students, director of residence, director of Campus Ministry, chairman of the English department and chairman of religious studies.

“It’s been a very blessed life in so many ways,” he said. “I love the daily rhythm of the life. I love teaching. I love working with the students and seeing them grow.”

At one time Malvey knew every student who graduated.

“I knew their first name,” he said.

Now, the college is so big, he knows only a small percentage of the students.

And because the college is only 44.5 percent Catholic, many students don’t know who the monks are, either, he said.

A few years ago, Malvey heard a student talking on the phone about the monks. He said she told her friend, “Yeah, I’m not kidding.

They wear those black robes with hoods, just like in the scary movies. And they’re everywhere.”

Most of the monks have advanced college degrees and have traveled extensively for work. Most also have several jobs. Those paid for work outside of the monastery see their paychecks go straight to the abbey.

As head of the monastery and Saint Martin’s chancellor, Roth is busy with a packed calendar six days a week.

When not working, he usually spends a few hours every Monday at the abbey’s two-story cabin on Cooper Point in Olympia, where he can bake bread and find some quiet time.

“There’s still a group that teaches, and they are the spiritual portion of the school,” said Jim Guerci, director of the university’s Alumni Relations program. “They are the spiritual backbone of the school. It’s still a Benedictine school.”

Abbot Neal Roth waits with Saint Martin’s student Alex Nelson of Renton in the sacristy room at Saint Martin’s Abbey Church before last year’s Good Friday service. “If you had told me in 1957 when I was a skinny little 18-year-old, kind of shy, that I would be the abbot, I would still be running in the other direction,” Roth said.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Benedictine monasteries around the world are known for their hospitality and architecture.

For years, Saint Martin’s monks resided in the university’s first building, built in 1895. They also lived in Old Main, a brick Collegiate Gothic Revival style building that opened in autumn 1913.

Today, the monks live in a modest four-story building that was dedicated in 1957. The beige and tan building features a community room, some TV rooms, a small library and an exercise room.

Other than Roth, who has a small apartment, the monks sleep in small rooms.

“Basically a monastic cell is a dorm room,” Tynan said.

Malvey, 78, wakes up at 4 a.m. to CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

Abbot Neal Roth washes the feet of guests during last year’s Holy Thursday service at Saint Martin’s Abbey Church.

The ritual is a re-creation of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples during the Last Supper to show humility.

Saint Martin’s student Ben Lopez, from left, guest priest Father Jack Frerker, Brother Martin Dinh, Brother Edmund Ebbers, Brother Mark Bonneville, Abbot Neal Roth and Father Peter Tynan wrap up the Holy Thursday service in the Blessed Sacrament Chapelat Saint Martin’s Abbey Church last April.

THE MONKS AND THEIR ABBEY THROUGH THE YEARS The monks of Saint Martin’s Abbey have been in the South Sound since 1891. Here are some highlights of their history: July 16, 1891: Father William Eversmann, 42, of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, arrives by train to be pastor of the newly established Holy Rosary in Tacoma — today, the parish is at 424 S. 30th St., Tacoma. German-speaking pioneers raise money to buy the land and build the Roman Catholic Church. With the bishop’s approval, they write Saint John’s abbot and ask him to send a German-speaking Bene-

dictine monk to be their pastor.

September 1891: Eversmann opens a school at Holy Rosary, and 35 students attend. Construction on a parochial school building begins in December.

April 21, 1894: A 571-acre tract in an area known as Woodland (now Lacey) is bought at auction for a college and monastery. Price: $6,920.

Sept. 11, 1895: Saint Martin’s College opens as a school for boys. Its initial offerings are comparable to current high school and community college level curricula. For many weeks, Angus McDonald of Shelton is the school’s first and only student. By February 1896, the school has six students.

May 1904: Three Benedictine nuns from Saint Gertrude’s Convent in Cottonwood, Idaho, arrive to run Saint Martin’s kitchen. The nuns also do sewing for students and monks.

1913: The first wing of what is now called Old Main, the university’s primary classroom and administrative building, is completed.

April 18, 1914: Saint Martin’s becomes an abbey independent from Saint John’s. It elects its first abbot, Father Oswald Baran, about a month later.

1922: KGY Radio begins broadcasting on campus. It’s launched by Father Sebastian Ruth, whose shortwave radio hobby turned into a part-time licensed broadcasting station.

Sunday, April 5, 2015 • 5

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S BEHIND THE WALLS

Father Clement Pangratz, from left, Father Alfred Hulscher, Abbot Neal Roth and Father George Seidel eat lunch silently while listening to a reading April 9. The monastic dining room is located on the first floor of the Old Main building on the Saint Martin’s University campus.

Brother Aelred Woodard lets out as laugh as Abbot Neal Roth surprises him by peeking into the exercise room Dec. 6.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 make coffee and read a little. He showers and shaves before the monks gather for their 6:30 a.m. prayer service.

After that, they eat breakfast in their dining hall, and then it’s off to their other work.

“I usually teach an 8 a.m. class,” said Malvey, who has taught English and religious studies at Saint Martin’s University for 54 years.

As director of the school’s Benedictine Institute, he often has meetings in the morning before returning to the abbey for the noontime prayer service and communal lunch.

The monks eat their simple meal — usually soup, salad and sandwiches, or a light entree — in silence, listening to a reading.

Afterward, they return to their jobs.

Malvey often teaches a 1 p.m. class, and, because he’s on several university committees, gears up for more meetings. He likes to get back to his room by 4 p.m. to relax a little before the 5 p.m. Mass.

Dinner is at 6 p.m. in the dining hall. At 6:30 p.m., a bell signals it’s time to meet in the recreation room for community time.

“We pray really slow, and we eat really fast,” Father Nguyen said with a laugh.

The monks spend the hour

socializing, relaxing and bringing their community together. As Saint Martin’s University students have rumored for years, there’s beer on tap. Wine and soft drinks, too.

“Usually we play cribbage and talk to each other,” Nguyen said.

Another popular activity is the board game Ticket to Ride.

“Guys started going on Google to find strategies on how to play it,” Nguyen said.

The monks gather for their final corporate prayer at 7:30 p.m. Some choose to pray together at other times, but it’s the last service of the day they’re required to attend.

Malvey said he usually stays in the monastery after 8 p.m. “unless there’s a Saints basketball game.”

He might watch a movie on DVD, or read a book or a newspaper. He usually eats a piece of toast or some cereal before going to bed at 11:30 p.m.

Saturdays are for haircuts as Brother Ramon Newell, who is trained as a professional barber, gives a style to Brother Mark Bonneville in the Saint Martin’s Abbey barber room in December.

“People come for a variety of reasons, but the main thing is: Do they seek God, and are they trying to seek a better relationship with God? If they’re not seeking God, they probably won’t last.”

Brother Ramon Newell, 69, on monks who leave Saint Martin’s Abbey

DOWN IN NUMBERS

The monastery’s ranks once swelled to nearly 100 men.

Today, the abbey’s membership has dwindled to 27 monks, including seven monks who live outside of the monastery because of their studies, parish assignments or nursing care needs.

A monk doesn’t have to be an

The monks’ attire can be casual inside Saint Martin’s Abbey. Father Benedict Auer, from left, Father Bede Classick, Brother Mark Bonneville and Abbot Neal Roth (in the blue plaid shirt) pass the time in the break room.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

The radio license is sold about a decade later. The station still broadcasts under its original call letters.

1923: Construction is completed on Old Main.

1940: Saint Martin’s offers baccalaureate degrees.

1946: Saint Martin’s offers agriculture classes for credit. The college has a well-established farm, and the monks produce most of the food for the campus.

Nov. 2, 1946: Federal agents pick up Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., aka “The Great Imposter.” A deserter from the Navy and Army, he arrived at Saint Martin’s about four months earlier, claiming he was a doctor and a candidate for the monastery.

April 28, 1958: The Benedictine Sisters of Saint Gertrude’s

Convent send a letter announcing they will end their agreement to provide culinary and sewing departments at Saint Martin’s by Aug. 1, 1960. The Saint Martin’s nuns are reassigned to hospitals and schools closer to their mother house.

1965: Saint Martin’s officially becomes coed. Some say it had been secretly coed because several women took night and summer session courses at the college, or by exception, in the previous decade.

1970: Saint Martin’s Abbey Church is completed.

1972: The college offers extension programs at Fort Lewis Army Post and McChord Air Force Base.

Oct. 16, 1973: After years of operating in the red and seeing

enrollment decline, Saint Martin’s High School is closed effective June 30, 1974, on a 35-15 vote by the abbey.

January 1980: John D. Ishii, a Saint Martin’s high school and college alumnus, is the first layperson to be named president and lead the college. That year, Saint Martin’s also begins offering graduate degrees.

1993: Father Neal Roth is elected abbot, a title he retains today.

2005: Saint Martin’s College changes its name to Saint Martin’s University.

Sources: Saint Martin’s Abbey, Saint Martin’s University, “This Place Called Saint Martin’s 1895-1995” by Father John C. Scott.

6 • Sunday, April 5, 2015

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S GENERATIONS

Gus Labayen, from left, Brother Martin Dinh, Saint Martin’s student Ben Lopez and Brother Mark Bonneville gather in the chapel entryway following the Holy Thursday service last year. With an average age in the 60s, the monks of Saint Martin’s and other monasteries are reaching out through the internet and social media to recruit a new generation.

Father Peter Tynan, better known to Saint Martin’s students as “Papa Pete,” leads a lesson on pop culture and Christianity, highlighted in December by an analysis of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The university chaplain uses his monthly “Papa Pete and Popcorn” nights as a way to connect with students.

Despite his monastic life, Tynan said he often is asked by students for relationship advice, “believe it or not.”

Gus Labayen gets fitted for a monk’s robe by seamstress Heather Lirette of Lacey, only the fifth seamstress in the history of Saint Martin’s Abbey. Assisting at left is apprentice seamstress Johanna Mitchell of Lacey. After several months trying out the abbey life as a postulant, Labayen decided not to join the monastery.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 ordained priest. Those who are go by the title “father.” Those who aren’t are referred to as “brother.”

The average monk is in his 60s; the oldest is 92. Six “young guys” are under 40.

“We’re becoming a rather elderly community these days,” Malvey said.

There have been big turnovers in consecrated life in the past.

Between 1974 and 1978, the abbey lost 34 of its 96 monks, and “only 11 are in the cemetery,” former Abbot Adrian Parcher wrote in a front-page story of The Olympian on Easter Sunday 1985, according to Scott’s book.

Roth believes Vatican II, a time when the Catholic Church overhauled its rules, contributed to the sharp decline.

Hulscher believes it was because of leadership at the abbey.

“My impression is there were people who were there, some of them probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” he said. “We had an abbot who was basically opening the door to anyone and everyone who was coming down the pike.”

Today, monasteries seem more selective with their candidates, said Owen Cummings, the academic dean and professor of theology at Mount Angel Seminary near Salem, Oregon.

There’s “perhaps a more mature approach to religious life, requiring people to genuinely reflect on what they were entering rather than just going along for the ride, if you will,” he said.

Roth agrees. Like many men in his generation, he entered the monastery as a young man — in his case in 1957 at age 18.

“Families thought that was wonderful — that they were truly blessed,” Roth said. “It was always encouraged.”

Many young people today aren’t ready to settle down or commit as early as in past generations, he said, plus, today’s monasteries are looking for men with some life experience.

An 18-year-old who showed interest in joining Saint Martin’s would be welcome to visit, but not allowed to join right away, the abbot said.

“I would tell him, ‘Listen, I want you to go to school for a year or two, get a job, date, volunteer with an organization and come back and visit us,’ ” Roth said.

In the same regard, Saint Martin’s rarely admits postulants older than 40. Roth recently received an inquiry from a man in his 70s who wanted to join the monastery.

“If they’re 40 or older, they just have too hard of a time adapting,” CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

“For Vietnamese, to have a son become a priest is better than having him become president.

It’s seen as a great honor.”

Father Marion Nguyen, 38, on what his mother thinks of his vocation

Father Marion Nguyen, right, accompanies his family, from left, younger brother Benedict Nguyen, who is holding nephew Liem Quigley, dad Thien Nguyen, younger sister Phuong Thanh Quigley and brother-in-law Alan Quigley as they come to visit last Thanksgiving. With all monks’ earnings going directly to the abbey, Nguyen used YouTube videos to learn how to sew to make presents for his nephews and nieces.

Sunday, April 5, 2015 • 7

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S LIFE GOES ON

Abbot Neal Roth, right, greets Thien Nguyen, the father of Father Marion Nguyen, center, after church services on Thanksgiving Day. From left to right are Marion Nguyen’s brother-in-law, nephew and sister. Nguyen posts on Twitter. His handle is @MarionTheMonk, and he routinely tweets a mix of selfies and Scriptures.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 Roth said. “We are very particular.

We have to be. We’re not here to fix people’s lives or take care of people.”

“There’s a certain consistency of being a monk — in other words, a certain stability. I’m not a person who likes a lot of changes going on all the time.”

Father Alfred Hulscher, 81, on the best benefit of monkhood

‘#COFFEE #JESUS #MONKLIFE’

Saint Martin’s and other monasteries are working to build a future by reaching out to prospective recruits in a modern way — via the Internet.

In the past year, the monks began making a recruiting video to highlight their lives. They also are working on a website with information for potential recruits, those they refer to as vocations or those called to serve God. Several monks regularly use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media to interact with the public.

“We need to be out there and have a social media presence,” Tynan said.

The abbey established its Facebook page in 2011, and the monks regularly use it to post photographs of their activities, as well as for distributing devotional information and the abbey’s Mass schedule.

Nguyen posts on Twitter. His handle is @MarionTheMonk, and he routinely tweets a mix of selfies and Scriptures.

On a recent day he tweeted a photo of himself holding a mug of coffee with the message, “Best way to begin the day! #coffee #Jesus #monklife.”

Some monasteries operate informational websites that are getting traffic, even overseas, Cummings said.

“I hear from a colleague in Oregon that his website is getting hits from the Philippines and parts of Africa,” he said. “So people are looking.”

In addition to connecting with people online, monasteries, including Saint Martin’s, are inviting men to try the life

firsthand — similar to a college weekend visit.

“Those are very helpful because what you see is what you’re going to get,” Cummings said.

In 2012, the university began the Benedictine Institute Scholars Program, as a way to continue its faith-based heritage and mission.

Students don’t have to be Catholic to participate, though they must embody the Benedictines’ core values of faith, reason, service and community.

The Benedictine Scholars participate in service projects and retreats with Saint Martin’s monks and live on a floor in a residence hall designed for those in student leadership. They can earn an annually renewable $10,000 scholarship.

Decker, who considers himself a pluralist or a self-described Buddhist/Hindu/Christian, is one of 10 in the interfaith program’s inaugural class.

“It has become our mission to uphold the Benedictine values so essentially it feels as if the monks are plentiful,” he said.

“We are not necessarily asked to become monastic ourselves, but to live the values in similar ways that the monks do that are more applicable to our lives in such a way the school will never cease to be influenced by what started it in the first place.”

JOINING THE ORDER

Father Alfred Hulscher sits quietly last month in his room at the Providence Mother Joseph Care Center in Olympia.

Hulscher underwent heart-valve surgery that has prevented him from returning to the Saint Martin’s Abbey. “If I hadn’t lost my ability to walk, I would probably be there now,” Hulscher said. “It was a little difficult figuring out who I am going to be while I’m here. But I’ve adjusted to many changes in my life. I’m not pining away because this or that isn’t there.”

Father Kilian Malvey walks through the cemetery in the woods of the Saint Martin’s University campus, where each of the monks will eventually be laid to rest. Malvey said this is his favorite spot on campus, because he can visit his former teachers, mentors and fellow monks.

About eight years ago, Mark Bonneville, 32, was a package handler for United Parcel Service in southwestern Washington.

The Nebraska native converted to Catholicism at 14 and, thanks to his volunteer work with the Knights of Columbus, knew he wanted to do some type of service work.

One night, while roaming the Internet, he came across a religious placement service CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Abbot Neal Roth, left, returns to the abbey with a fellow monk after dinner on a Tuesday last April. Fewer than 30 monks remain at the abbey after a high of nearly 100 monks in the 1960s.

8 • Sunday, April 5, 2015

THE MONKS OF SAINT MARTIN ’S DECISIONS

Fewer people choose to join consecrated life

BY LISA PEMBERTON Staff writer The steep decline in the number of monks at Saint Martin’s Abbey isn’t unusual for Roman Catholic monasteries.

“If you take a look at Catholic consecrated life across the United States, many congregations would say their numbers are down,” Owen Cummings of Mount Angel Seminary near Salem, Oregon, said.

Last year, there were 38,275 Catholic priests in the United

States, more than 20,000 fewer than in 1965, according the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a Georgetown University-affiliated organization that studies trends in the Catholic Church.

The decline in “religious priests” — those who live in a priestly community such as a monastery — took an even sharper dive, falling to 12,010 from 22,707 in the same time frame.

Meantime, the number of “religious brothers,” which

includes unordained monks, dropped to 4,318 from 12,271, according to the center.

Part of the decline in consecrated life stems from rules changed during Vatican II in the early 1960s, Cummings said. The new rules allowed lay people to perform some church duties that previously were exclusive to priests, nuns and monks.

Other theories for the decline include a fall in birth rates, a society more based on consumerism and the church

dropping its ban on letting girls help priests during Mass in the early 1980s.

Some believe also it is tied to the sex and child abuse scandals that have rocked the church and led to congregation declines over the past three decades.

It continues to be a difficult situation for the church that has touched Saint Martin’s. Four men sued in 2008, alleging they were abused as boys during the 1950s

by Father Leonard Feeney, who died in 1980.

In 2011, a different Saint Martin’s priest was placed on leave for alleged sexual abuse of a minor while he served at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lacey during the 1980s.

The priest, who is still at the monastery, denies the allegations and was not named in any lawsuit or charged with a crime, according to Saint Martin’s Abbot Neal Roth.

Lisa Pemberton: 360-754-5433 lpemberton@theolympian.com @Lisa_Pemberton

“Either they get married, or they fall in love, or they felt the monastic life was not for them. ... I don’t see people leaving as a bad thing because sometimes God has a plan for something else.”

Father Kilian Malvey, 78, on those who leave the monastery, including his biological brother, who left the Saint Martin’s Abbey after 25 years

Father Kilian Malvey waits outside the Saint Martin’s Abbey for a ride with a student to visit family in Port Angeles over the Thanksgiving holiday.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 website. On a whim, Bonneville submitted his information, not because he wanted to become a monk, but because he was curious about what they do.

He visited Saint Martin’s and found a community he said took to heart its promise to be hospitable, a rule of Saint Benedict.

“That was ... ‘Wow,’ ” Bonneville said. “All of the monks were very welcoming, very interesting.”

Six months later, after several more visits to Saint Martin’s, Bonneville applied to join the order.

How was that received by his friends and family?

“They didn’t tell me this, but it was like, ‘You’re crazy — you have your whole life ahead of you,’ ” Bonneville said.

The first stage of becoming a monk is known as postulancy, from the Latin word for “asking.”

The tryout period usually lasts several months, and allows the men to get to know each other.

The second stage, novitiate, is more formal and includes instruction on vows, the history of monasticism and church doctrine.

It usually lasts about a year.

Next, monks take temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, in a stage that lasts about three years.

“During that time, you continue to discern whether this is for you or not,” Roth said. “Not everybody makes solemn vows. Some leave.”

When a Benedictine monk takes those final vows — Bonneville took his on July 11, 2012 — he promises to follow the rule of stability, which means he’ll stay until his death.

In turn, the abbey will take care of all of his needs, from housing and clothing to medical bills and meals.

“A CERTAIN MYSTIQUE”

Gus Labayen, 26, considered

joining Saint Martin’s as a postulate last year.

Eventually he decided not to pursue it.

Labayen had considered the calling since high school, when a Saint Martin’s monk presided over Mass at his hometown church, Saint Nicholas Catholic Church in Gig Harbor.

“I think there’s a certain mystique when you’re from the outside,” he said.

Labayen visited the monastery several times during breaks from Central Washington University, where he studied music.

“I would come and visit and get to know the monastery and the community,” he said. “Over time, it was just a relationship that blossomed.”

Labayen moved into the monastery over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in 2014. He wore a hand-me-down habit from a monk who had died, participated in daily services and studied organ music with one of the priests.

He performed manual labor, including cleaning cars, chopping wood and working on grounds maintenance. Among his chores was cleaning the monastery’s bathrooms, a tradition for postulants at Saint Martin’s.

“Yes, I was scrubbing toilets,” Labayen said. “I wouldn’t say it was a highlight.”

He was able to “unplug” from the outside world and enter a sheltered community. He was required to give up his cellphone.

Instead, he listened to stories from older monks and played a lot of cribbage.

“There’s a stereotype that monks don’t talk much and are withdrawn, and I found that really to not be the case,” Labayen said.

He said he learned about how hard the monks work, how dedicated they are to their calling and their community.

“Although the community is a lot smaller in numbers (than previous years), I think the quality of the men there is astounding,” Labayen said. “All of them were role models to me, and I learned something every day from each and every one of them.”

The biggest lesson, he said, was the most painful: He wasn’t ready to become a monk, now or possibly ever. It wasn’t in his heart to make that commitment.

“I changed my mind,” Labayen said. “I think, after some prayer and discernment, that this is a time to switch gears and try something else.”

Labayen said it wasn’t an easy decision to make.

“We never know what the future holds, but I felt it was for the best,” he said. “It was a little bittersweet, but certainly not like the end of my relationship with them.”

Labayen said he’s grateful for his time at Saint Martin’s, but noted it had its challenges. It’s not easy to join a community, he said, especially when you’re fresh out of college and the median age of your housemates is your grandfather’s.

“I found it’s very humbling to be part of that process and admiring for other people who take that step and try out the religious life,” Labayen said.

He added, “It was a very spiritual and personal growing time for me. And I’m glad the community at Saint Martin’s had the encouragement and the time to invest in my future.”

THE MODERN MONK

Roth was 18 when he arrived at the abbey on June 30, 1957. One of his cousins was a novice at the monastery.

“I was impressed with the fact that they prayed together, every day, several times a day,” Roth said.

He majored in education and English at what then was Saint Martin’s College, and received a master’s in theology at Mount Angel Seminary.

Sometimes he’s asked to visit classes to give insight on monastic life. Students often ask about the monks’ black habits, which they usually wear only on campus.

Many want to know what Roth wears under his black habit.

“I always lift up this part,” he said, folding up the edge to his knee, “and say, ‘Well, trousers, like anyone else.’”

Nowadays, he added, some of the younger monks prefer to wear shorts.

Another popular question: What do monks do for fun?

“I tell the students the younger monks might go out to a movie

HOW WE REPORTED THIS STORY

Pemberton

Overman

Inspired by a photo of six Saint Martin’s University monks wearing sunglasses, reporter Lisa Pemberton said she wanted to share their story with readers.

“When I saw the photo,” which was taken at a photo shoot for the Saint Martin’s Gala, “it made me wonder, ‘Who are those guys?’ ” Pemberton along with photojournalist Tony Overman spent the next year following the lives of the men in black – witnessing them at play, at work and in prayer. It is a rare glimpse of life behind the cloister’s walls, of personal histories interwoven in the spiritual cloak of monastic life.

and have pizza and beer,” Roth said. Of course that happens only with the abbot’s permission and using money he has given them, other monks said.

The main part of a monk’s work — gathering for prayers and a daily Mass — hasn’t changed much in the past half century, Roth notes.

Still, there are greater opportunities for a monk to expand his education, and the lifestyle isn’t as strict as it used to be, he said.

“In some ways, we’re more modern,” Roth said. “Monks can go out to a movie. When I entered, there was none of that.”

For those of the order, life continues to be a balance of old and new, individual journeys of deep faith mixed with support from a community of brothers; prayer and work; a world kept private behind a cloister that is trying to save itself with the Internet and social media.

Roy Heynderickx, who has served as the university’s president since 2009, said the monks remain an essential part of the Saint Martin’s experience.

“Their presence, in and outside of the classroom, is a constant reminder of the spiritual side of life — a concept that many young people do not have the opportunity to reflect upon until they come to Saint Martin’s,” he said.

But the monks’ lives remain dictated by rules Saint Benedict wrote more than 15 centuries ago.

And even if the size of the abbey continues to shrink, none of the monks believes it will disappear.

“We have a history, a tradition, a culture,” said Brother Ramon Newell, 69. “It’s not something that’s going to blow away like a breeze.”

Lisa Pemberton: 360-754-5433 lpemberton@theolympian.com @Lisa_Pemberton