Caracas, 21 of September 2019 No. 933
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Dear Friends,
I would like to dedicate a few lines on the history of
Mount St. Benedict.
I
copied this from the 75th Anniversary brochure.
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HOW THE MOUNT GOT ITS NAME.
The Abbot of Bahia, as a founder of the
monastery in Trinidad, had a personal right to select an appropriate name for this
new foundation.
The idea of persecution and expulsion
seems to have been vivid in his mind, and apparently, he wished to perpetuate
it, for he called the Mission in Trinidad:
“OUR BLESSED LADY OF EXILE”
And to indicate where precisely that
Mission was situated, he added:
“upon St. BENEDICT´s HILL”
These titles were therefore officially
bestowed upon the new foundation by the founding Abbot.
On the Sunday following their arrival,
there was an event at the Episcopal Visitation in the Parish of St. Joseph, and
the Very Reverend Dom Ambrose was invited to attend the various functions.
The CATHOLIC NEWS on Sunday 19th October
states:
“The very Reverend Dom Ambrose
Vinckier, first Superior of the future Mission of Mount St. Benedict, assisted
at the throne.”
It is possible that the Editor of the
Catholic News, the Very Reverend Father Casey O.P. SUGGESSTED that name in
preference to “St. Benedict’s Hill” which was the OFFICIAL title.
Dom Ambrose became a bit uneasy about
this change and wrote accordingly to the Abbot.
Dom Mayeul replied on November 19th:
“I have just received a letter from
the Superior of Mount St. Benedict, which causes me to add this P.S. before
closing of mails.
Dom Ambrose tells me that it is better
to call our Mission Mount St. Benedict rather St. Benedict’s Hill and I see
that the Catholic News of October 10th speaks already in that sense.
I am not sufficiently acquainted with
English to solve the problem.
We have a “St. Mary’s Hill” in the
U.S:A. and I thought that the locality of our future monastery deserved the
qualification of Hill rather than that of Mount, though it is true that it
serves as a buttress of the mountains which dominate it. I leave therefore, the decision with Your
Grace.”
And His Grace decided: “MOUNT ST. BENEDICT”
This is still further confirmed by what
the Archbishop wrote (later) on August 18th 1934 in the Catholic News: “The name Mount St. Benedict, which I had
given the property, was adopted by the monks.”
Ever since the 19th October, the
Benedictine property in the hills above St. Joseph has been known as: MOUNT ST. BENEDICT or more popularly, “THE
MOUNT”
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Now something about MOUNT TABOR, from an internet
source:
Mount Tabor is a mountain in Galilee, located about 6 miles / 10 kilometers east of Nazareth and 11 miles / 18 kilometers west of The Sea Of Galilee. With an impressive height of
1,840 feet / 560 meters high, overlooking the Valley of Jezreel, it served as a
boundary point between the tribes of Issachar, Naphtali and Zebulun (see Tribal
Lands). Jesus Christ would have been very well familiar with Mount Tabor, since He grew up
within sight of it, and for that reason some believe that it was the location
of The Transfiguration.
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I just wonder if this is where the peak where the
first monastery got its name??? Need
comments from historians, since in my nearly six years at the school, I never
heard the name; while we spoke of White Stones, daily.
By the way the stones cannot be seen any more due to a
pine forest planted in the 19.....
(Can anyone help with the date???, Ed.)
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Construction of the building on Mount
Tabor began in 1918.
It was meant as a study house for the
students and a rest house for those who were still on Mount St. Benedict.
The building, measured 80 feet at the
front, facing south.
East and West measured 60 feet while the
Northern facade had full length of 40 feet
It had 15 rooms, a chapel and a large
hall
There were two towers, 40 feet high on
either side.
On the right tower, the Papal flag was
flown.
On the left tower, which had three large
guest rooms, the Union Jack was flown.
The building was constructed by Bro.
Joseph Kleinmann, according to the plans of Dom Mayeul.
It took the Brother four years of
strenuous and faithful labour.
The walls were made of tapia, with
layers of cement as a protective ad finishing touch.
On the Western side of the building was
an underground cistern with a capacity of 13,000 gallons.
Newspaper clippings have preserved parts
of the story.
(I have seen the cistern, although I thought it was a cellar,
EDITOR)
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REMINISENCE OF A VISIT
By A.E. Murray (Gossip)
Monday, 31th July 1922, Discovery Day.
The day on which our beautiful island
was discovered by Christopher Columbus of revered memory, and which is
proclaimed a Public Holiday is commemoration thereof – broken fair, and as the
day wore on, Old Sol gave promise of chinning in the very zenith of his glory.
Added to this, there was a light cool
breeze which heightened the delightful prospects of a very glorious day.
It was a day such as this in keeping
with a previous promise, that he writer elected to pay a visit to Mount Tabor
in the company with Rev. Bro. Maur Maingot O.S:B:, Guest Master of the
Monastery of Mount St. Benedict.
Knowing the generous hospitality of the
sons of St. Benedict, I took the liberty to invite a few friends to do the
journey with me, but unfortunately at the last moment (much to their loss, I
rather fancy) I had to go alone.
Gossip is inclined to think that few
people know anything of Mount Tabor, or have ever heard of such a place.
Mount Tabor is the peak of a hill about
six miles higher up (further up the trail) than St. Benedict, and is about
2,000 feet above sea level, with a beautiful view of the country below and the
sea.
The climate is very cool, that is to
say, when you have reached there first.
It is not recommended to any one whose
heart is not very sound, but to most of our readers it would be a delightful
retreat both for soul and jaded mind.
Mount Tabor is the residence of the
polished and genial Abbot of St. Benedict Seminary.
Gossip thinks that the high officials
who play golf on Sundays on the savannah would benefit more by a journey to
Tabor than they do for a month on Sunday on the savannah.
Gossip says that a wink is as good as a
nod to a blind beggar, but to the spiritually weak a Sunday at Tabor to be
enlightened by the learned Abbot and to pray to the Almighty to forgive their
sins of omission and commission would de them good.
(I remember the foundations of the building when we
used to go that far, editor)
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So, now that we have had a couple of articles of
yesteryear on MSB, we reach to 1962. The first page of the bulletin ‘Spotlight
on the Mount’ reads:
Sunday the fourteenth of October in the
year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-two commemorates the Golden Jubilee
of the Abbey of Mount St. Benedict.
FOREWORD
Welcome to our Golden Jubilee Fair.
An enormous amount of hard work and
energetic effort has been put into its preparation by the Committee and their
helpers so as to make the Fair highly attractive: something to match a Fifty
Years´ Jubilee! We wish you a full day
of healthy enjoyment!
We sincerely thank the Committee and
their helpers; we express our gratitude to the advertisers in this booklet.
We thank you for your generous
patronage.
The proceeds of today’s Jubilee Fair are
destined for the completion of the Abbey.
As yet is it far from being complete.
Throw your stone today on the Mount, and
in the near future, please God, your stone will stand polished and bright, pie
up into a worthy House of God.
Adelbert van Duin O.S.B.
Abbot
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Now a photo of the MEMBERS OF
THE COMMUNITY
Some missed the photo session, and there is no record
available, but please write their names in case you remember, so I might
include them in the register.
To match the numbers I have provided I have asked my
good friend Fr. Christopher to place names:
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From:
"Henry Theunissen" <htt41@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 Feb 06:46
(PST)
Dear Ladislao,
I'm in Holland at the moment for medical
reasons and Fr. Francis Friesen has asked me to write this to you.
First of all he wants you to know how
much he enjoys receiving your circulars regularly. Although he is almost
completely blind, he manages to read them with the help of a TV Reading Loupe,
a huge magnifier, able to project a written text on a kind of TV screen. He has
just received your message attached to circular 117, dated Feb. 1. He was
surprised to read the article of the T'dad Express about the Library. He
himself many years ago worked hard and was one of the pioneers in developing
the library into the fine institution it is today.
It will interest you to know that your
initiative to publish the Berchmanianum e-mail address in Circular 97, has born
fruit.
Since then Fr. Francis received a number
of messages from amongst others Anthony Lucky (T&T), Ian Rodrigues
(Guyana/Grenada/Canada), Christopher de Marothy (Venezuela/U.S.A. Anthony.
Ian mentioned they were present at my
ordination to the priesthood in the Abbey in 1950. Justice Anthony plans to
visit here when next he will be in Hamburg, Germany to attend the sessions of
the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Christopher de Marothy surprised me with
a photo of 1956 of the abbey boy’s choir of which I was in charge.
At this particular concert he made his
debut as a violinist, "screeching away at the violin" as he call it.
It makes Fr. Francis very happy to know
that so many of the past alumni of the Abbey School have done so well,
including yourself.
He and all the other former teacher are
very proud to have been able to contribute in some small way to this future
development.
I shall now attempt to identify the
monks on the photo, taken during the Golden Jubilee Year 1962.
Here goes (subject to correction):
1
Br. Camillus Culley
2
Br. Michael Thomas
3
Br. Crispin Millet
4
Br. Robert John
5
Br. Christopher Theunissen
6
Fr. Eugene Gibbs
7
Br. Bruno Schrama
8
Br. George Etienne
9
Br. Rupert Alexis
10 Br.
Edward Theunissen
11 Fr.
Charles Lwanga Hoskins
12 Fr.
Bernard Vlaar
13 Br.
Hildebrand Greene
14 Br.
Gerard Cotter
15 Br.
Alphonse Koenraadt
16 Br.
Oswald Gomes
17 Br.
Cornelius Verburg
18 Fr.
Anselm van der Heijdt
19 Br.
Guest
20 Fr.
Gregory Kloeg
21 Fr.
Martin van Enschot
22 Br.
Joseph Perez
23 Br.
Raphael Goemare
24 Fr. Ignatius
Oudshoorn
25 Fr.
Simeon Campbell
26 Fr.
Cuthbert van de Sande
27 Fr.
Retreatmaster
28 Fr.
Augustine Schreurs
29 Abbot Adelbert van Duin
30 Fr. Paul van den Eijnden
31 Prior
Hugh van der Sanden
32 Fr.
John Chrysostom Lee Singh
33 Fr. Bede Theunissen
34 Fr. Leo van Leeuwen
35 Fr.
Andrew Brugman
36 Fr.
William Boers
37 Fr.
John EvangelistVerdijk
38 Fr.
Basil Matthews
39 Br. Conrad De Silva
40 Br. Brendan Christian
41 Br.
Maurus Superville
42 Br.
Postulant
43 Br.
Felix Dorset
44 Br.
Anthony Murray
45 Fr.
Ildefons Schroots
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Editor: I have the following names that do not appear
in the above list:
Fr. Peter Can. Van
Straelen
Fr. Odilio van Tongeren
Fr. Radbod van den (Plas.)
Fr. John Gualbert van den (Plas.)
Fr. John Baptist Osborne
Fr. Suitbert de Zwart
Fr. Francis Friesen
Fr. Benedict Simons (maybe he took the photo??)
Fr. Gerome Koot
Fr. Theodore Koek
Fr. Boniface Toneman
Fr. Odo van der Heydt
Bro.Gabriel Mokveld
----------------------------------------------------
For further clarifications and some
omissions you may perhaps contact the monks at the Mount.
Especially, Br. Gerard (formerly Br.
Rupert) is very good at identifying persons.
God bless.
Fr. Christopher Theunissen
PS We have just received news that Fr.
Cornelius Verburg is very sick, terminal with cancer. Some may remember him as
art teacher at the Abbey School in the sixties. Please, pray for him.
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I hope that this resume would help us in remembering
the celebrations that we had each year.
It was a free day for us schoolboys, although I cannot
remember the exact date, but we all expected it. Naturally the date of the fair
for outsiders, parents etc., was on Saturday and Sunday. (Ed)
------------------------------------------------------------------.
EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz, kertesz11@yahoo.com, if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any
old boy that you would like to include.
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Photos:
62UN0010MSB, Photo of
the clergy taken in 1962
62UN0001FAVPOR, Fr. Abbot Adelbert van Duin
18UN0001MSBEDI, Monastery at Mt. Tabor, please help me with
the dates
18UN0002MSBEDI, Monastery at Mt. Tabor, please help me with
the dates
.
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