During this week in 1878, the first Catholic mass was said in Logan County by Benedictine priests and monks who had just arrived to establish what we know today as Subiaco Abbey and Academy. In the almost 150 years since its founding, Subiaco has become a center of church activity, with a monastery, schools, a retreat center and an imposing edifice. Given the many challenges it faced from the very start, it is perhaps miraculous Subiaco survived at all.
Founding Subiaco involved a trinity of interested parties -- the Roman Catholic bishop of Little Rock, Edward Fitzgerald; the Benedictine abbot at St. Meinrad's Abbey in southern Indiana; and the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad. Bishop Fitzgerald wanted to increase his small flock in a heavily Protestant diocese, which fitted neatly with the efforts of Col. William Slack, the railroad company land agent. The LR&FS, like most railroad companies, was land rich -- having been given 6,400 acres of public land per mile of track laid. The abbot at St. Meinrad's, Martin Marty, felt a need to extend the work of his order into the western frontier -- and Arkansas still fit that description in the 1870s.
Ultimately, Bishop Fitzgerald made a deal with Slack to set aside large tracts of land scattered along the Arkansas River Valley from Conway to Fort Smith for Catholic settlers. Abbot Marty also made a deal with the railroad company, by which the railroad donated 640 acres of land for a Benedictine monastery and an additional 100 acres for the founding of a convent of Benedictine nuns in Logan County.
Abbot Marty made an important decision when he chose the Rev. Wolfgang Schlumpf to lead the effort in Arkansas. Like many of the early Catholic clergy in the Arkansas River Valley, Father Wolfgang was Swiss by birth. He had extensive administrative and financial management experience -- skills that would be much needed in building a Benedictine outpost on the Arkansas frontier.
On Ash Wednesday, March 6, 1878, Wolfgang and two monks climbed into a mule-drawn wagon and departed St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana bound for Arkansas. This small contingent was bolstered by additional support from St. Meinrad's as well as the Abbey Maria-Einsiedeln in Switzerland. In 1887, a new priest arrived from Switzerland, accompanied by eight novices -- sometimes jestingly called the "Eight Beatitudes."
These early priests and monks worked long hours in building what was known as St. Benedict's Priory. A number of buildings -- including a church, monastery and school buildings -- were erected using both quarried stone and lumber. Educational efforts began in 1887, when five students enrolled in St. Benedict's College. For almost 20 years, the abbey educated seminarians for the Diocese of Little Rock.
By the summer of 1901, St. Benedict's Priory had grown to the point that Pope Leo XIII raised the priory to the rank of abbey, with a new name -- Subiaco -- the same name as the monastery founded by St. Benedict. Prospects looked good, but two disasters loomed in the early years of the new century.
On the night of Dec. 15, 1901, the all-wood abbey caught fire and was totally destroyed. Thankfully, a new monastery was already under construction -- which was occupied in 1903.
A second fire hit Subiaco Abbey on the night of Dec. 20, 1927, and it was devastating. Most of the 35,000 books in the abbey library were destroyed. Also lost was a priceless photo collection documenting the abbey from its earliest days. A main part of the south wing and part of the west wing were saved, but most of the abbey was in ruins. Speaking to their commitment to education, a primitive, but functional, school was opened within two months of the fire.
Insurance covered only a small fraction of the losses, and Subiaco faced a long rebuilding process. The coming of the depression in the 1930s made things worse. Hiring a professional fundraising company produced little. As Hugh Assenmacher, author of an excellent history of Subiaco, has written: "The 1930s were a time of do-it-yourself projects for monks and students." Still, new buildings gradually arose, and old structures were renovated.
Today, the abbey is best known for its school, Subiaco Academy, which attracts students from across the nation and from several foreign countries. The academy consists of students in grades 7-12. Tuition is $26,400 for a full-time residential student. Day students pay $8,000 per year.
Subiaco Abbey is far more than a school. More than 50 monks live at the Abbey -- many of them teaching, but others raising Black Angus cattle, operating a sawmill and tending large gardens. The monks make and sell a hot pepper sauce, known as "Monk Sauce."
Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in Hot Spring County. Email him at [email protected].
NAN Profiles on 03/19/2017