Boniface Wimmer

Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. (1809 – 1887) was a German monk who in 1846 founded the first Benedictine monastery in the United States, Saint Vincent Archabbey[1], in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, forty miles southeast of Pittsburgh. In 1855 Wimmer founded the American-Cassinese Congregation of Benedictine Confederation. The official website of Boniface Wimmer can be found here.

He was born 14 January 1809 in the hamlet of Thalmassing, Bavaria and christened Sebastian Wimmer. His parents, Peter Wimmer and Elizabeth (née Lang) Wimmer were tavern keepers. As a young boy, Sebastian believed he had a vocation to the priesthood. He attended the University of Regensburg (Ratisbon) and the University of Munich, where he studied law. When a scholarship opened up in the Gregorianum, he took a competitive exam, won a scholarship, finished his theological studies, and was ordained on 1 August 1831.

Following his ordination to the Priesthood, Father Sebastian Wimmer served a year as curate at the famous Shrine of the Virgin Mary at Altötting, Bavaria. It was also during this time that the King of Bavaria, Ludwig of the Royal House of Wittelsbach, lifted the Napoleonic suppression of the Bavarian Benedictine Monasteries and began the process of re-establishing them. One such Abbey was the ancient Benedictine foundation of Saint Michael Abbey in the town of Metten, Bavaria. Saint Michael Abbey had been founded in 766 by Charlemagne with monks from the Archcenobium of Monte Cassino, of the Italian province of Umbria. The Abbey was suppressed in 1803 by Napoleon. With its re-establishment, Father Sebastian Wimmer sought to enter the newly formed monastery and discern a vocation to the Benedictine monastic life. Upon entering the community at Metten, Father Sebastian Wimmer was given the religious name, Boniface, after the great Apostle to Germany, Saint Boniface. He took solemn vows on 29 December 1833. He lived the common life which he had professed, namely, obedience, stability and Conversatio Morum (conversion of life) at Metten. Almost from the very beginning, Father Boniface Wimmer had an interior calling to be a missionary to the thousands of German people who had left their native land to pursue a better life in the United States. Reading about the condition of German immigrants in the United States, Wimmer took steps to transplant Benedictine missions there. He began by asking his superior for permission to go to the New World as a missionary. Father Boniface Wimmer was granted permission to serve in a missionary capacity in the United States in 1846.

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