About St. Benedicts Abbey · Atchison, Kansas
St. Benedict's Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery in Atchison, Kansas, home to about 50 monks who live according to the Rule of St. Benedict. Founded in 1857 by German-speaking Benedictines from Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the community was established to serve German settlers in Kansas Territory and to educate their sons. Best known locally as "the Kansas Monks," the abbey co-sponsors Benedictine College and Maur Hill-Mount Academy, runs a year-round retreat program, and supplies priests and chaplains throughout Northeast Kansas. The community is led today by its ninth abbot, Abbot James R. Albers, O.S.B., elected in December 2012.
- Established
- 1857
- Patron
- St. Benedict of Nursia
- Rector
- Abbot James R. Albers, O.S.B. (ninth abbot, elected December 2012)
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas
Why belong here
St. Benedict's Abbey is more than a parish — it is a working Benedictine monastery where visitors are welcome to pray alongside the monks in the architecturally striking Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced Abbey Church. Public Mass is offered every day of the week (12:10 PM Mon–Sat, 10:00 AM Sun, plus a Saturday Vigil at 7:00 PM), with Vigils/Lauds, Midday Prayer, Vespers, Compline, weekday Adoration, and a Saturday Holy Hour all open to guests. Retreatants of all ages — middle-schoolers, high-schoolers, college students, and adults (including women's and men's Lenten retreats) — stay in the Abbey Guest House and join the community's prayer and table. The monks also serve as pastors and chaplains across Northeast Kansas, run an Oblate Program for laymen, and provide prison and women's-religious-community chaplaincies, so supporting the abbey directly underwrites Catholic education at Benedictine College and Maur Hill-Mount Academy.
Mass times at St. Benedicts Abbey
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Sunday 9:00 AM – 9:55 AM (in the Abbey Church)
Adoration times
- Monday through Friday 4:00 PM – 4:50 PM
- Saturday 7:00 PM Holy Hour with Compline
St. Benedict's Abbey — About the Monastery
St. Benedict's Abbey is a Catholic Benedictine monastery of the American-Cassinese Congregation located at 1020 N. Second Street in Atchison, Kansas. Founded in April 1857 by monks from Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania — the first Benedictine monastery in the United States — the community lives according to the Rule of St. Benedict, praying and working 'for the glory of God and the good of the world.' The official website identifies them as 'the Kansas Monks,' a nickname given by the Pennsylvania motherhouse that they retain proudly. Education has always been the primary apostolate: today the community co-sponsors Benedictine College and Maur Hill-Mount Academy and supplies priests, pastors, and chaplains across Northeast Kansas.
- Founded April 1857 by Fr. Augustus Wirth, O.S.B. and companions from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania
- Mother house: Saint Vincent Archabbey
- Congregation: American-Cassinese Benedictine Congregation
- Patron: St. Benedict of Nursia — patronal feast November 11
- Approximately 50 monks in community today
- Diocese: Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas
- Mission: 'To glorify God by seeking him through joyful self-sacrifice; embracing fully the monastic and apostolic ideals; leading others to encounter Jesus Christ.'
History of St. Benedict's Abbey
The abbey began in 1857 to minister to German Catholic immigrants flooding into Kansas Territory and to educate their sons. The first monk in Kansas was Henry (Heinrich) Lemke, O.S.B., who founded the Church of St. John the Baptist in Doniphan. Fr. Augustus Wirth, O.S.B., named prior, and Casimir Seitz, O.S.B. joined him in April 1857 — the official founding. Invited by Vicar Apostolic John Baptist Miège, S.J., the community relocated to Atchison in 1858 and opened the first Catholic services there on Christmas Day 1858. Supported by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, they laid the cornerstone of the Old Priory (now Lemke Hall) on May 29, 1859, and opened a day school with a classical curriculum in 1862. The community was incorporated by the State of Kansas under Prior Louis Mary Fink, O.S.B. in 1868, and raised to an independent abbey in 1877 with Innocent Wolf, O.S.B. elected as its first abbot — only the second Benedictine abbey in the United States.
- 1857 — Founding in Doniphan by Frs. Henry Lemke, Augustus Wirth, and Casimir Seitz
- 1858 — Community relocates to Atchison at the invitation of Bishop Miège, S.J.; first Mass on Christmas Day
- 1859 — Old Priory cornerstone laid May 29 with support from King Ludwig I of Bavaria
- 1862 — Day school opens (becomes St. Benedict's College, today Benedictine College)
- 1866 — Cornerstone laid for St. Benedict's Parish Church; church opens 1868
- 1877 — Priory raised to abbey status; Innocent Wolf, O.S.B. elected first abbot
- 1893 — Cloistered monastery completed (then the largest building in Atchison)
- 1906 — St. Benedict's Parish Church consecrated on Thanksgiving Day
- 1919 — High school division becomes Maur Hill Prep School
- 1928 — Present monastery built on the bluffs above the Missouri River
- 1945 — Architect Bart Byrne (Frank Lloyd Wright protégé) chosen for the abbey church
- 1957 — Abbey Church completed
- 1959 — Jean Charlot frescoes painted; Guest House completed
- 1971 — St. Benedict's College merges with Mount St. Scholastica College to form Benedictine College
- 1982 — Benedictine College North Campus Historic Complex listed on the National Register of Historic Places
- 2003 — Maur Hill-Mount Academy formed by merger of the two prep schools
- 2007 — 150th anniversary marked with the album 'On a Musical Journey' under Fr. Blaine Schultz, O.S.B.
- December 2012 — Abbot James R. Albers, O.S.B. elected as ninth abbot
Monastic Leadership and Community
The community is led by its ninth abbot, the Right Reverend James R. Albers, O.S.B., a fourth-generation alumnus of Benedictine College ('94) who professed vows in 1996, was ordained in Rome in 2000, served as Prior from 2002 and Vocations Director from 2005, and was elected abbot in December 2012. He is assisted by Prior Leven Harton, O.S.B., Sub-Prior Br. Jean-Marie Hogan, O.S.B., and Treasurer Fr. Jay Kythe, O.S.B., who also directs the Abbey Retreat program. The community today numbers some 50 monks including roughly two dozen professed priests and a number of brothers in formation or in consecrated life. Affiliated members include Bishop Joaquim Carlos Carvalho, O.S.B. and a small contingent of Brazilian monks.
- Abbot (head of community): Abbot James R. Albers, O.S.B.
- Prior: Leven Harton, O.S.B.
- Sub-Prior: Br. Jean-Marie Hogan, O.S.B.
- Treasurer & Retreat Master: Fr. Jay Kythe, O.S.B.
- Solemnly professed priests and brothers form the choir of the abbey
- Brazilian affiliated members include Bishop Joaquim Carlos Carvalho, O.S.B.
Daily Liturgical Prayer Schedule
All prayer is open to the public unless otherwise noted, and is celebrated in the main Abbey Church with access restricted to the nave. The community keeps the full round of the Liturgy of the Hours: Vigils and Lauds at dawn, Midday Prayer, Vespers in the late afternoon, and Compline at night. A Conventual Mass is celebrated daily and is the spiritual centerpiece.
- Vigils & Lauds: Mon–Sat 5:45 AM; Sun 6:30 AM
- Conventual Mass: Mon–Sat 12:10 PM; Sun 10:00 AM
- Saturday Vigil Mass / Holy Hour with Compline: Sat 7:00 PM
- Midday Prayer: Mon–Sat 11:45 AM; Sun 12:05 PM
- Vespers: Mon–Fri 5:00 PM; Sat 5:40 PM; Sun 5:00 PM
- Compline: Mon–Fri 7:30 PM (no public Compline Tuesdays); Sat & Sun 7:45 PM
- Weekday Adoration: Mon–Fri 4:00–4:50 PM
- Sunday Confessions: 9:00–9:55 AM
Retreats and Guest House Ministry
The Abbey Guest House, completed in 1959 and architecturally echoing the Abbey Church, is open year-round for personal and group retreats. Retreatants live alongside the community, sharing the Liturgy of the Hours, daily Mass, meals in silence, and spiritual conferences led by the monks. Recurring retreats include middle-school, high-school, college, and adult retreats; an annual Women's Retreat; men's Lenten and Advent retreats led by Fr. Jay Kythe, O.S.B.; and a 'Come and See' discernment retreat for men 18–35 considering monastic life.
- Men's Lenten Retreat (Fr. Jay Kythe, O.S.B.)
- Women's Retreats
- Come and See Discernment Retreat for men 18–35
- Middle-school, high-school, college, and adult retreats
- Triduum (Ecce Homo) Silent Retreat
- Advent retreat offerings
- Personal/private retreats available year-round via the retreats form
Education Apostolate
Education is the primary apostolate of the monks. The community co-sponsors Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts college formed in 1971 by the merger of St. Benedict's College with the sisters' Mount St. Scholastica College (founded 1863), and Maur Hill-Mount Academy, a co-educational Catholic boarding high school formed in 2003 from the merger of Maur Hill Prep School with the corresponding girls' school. Many monks teach in and govern both institutions.
- Benedictine College (co-sponsor)
- Maur Hill-Mount Academy (co-sponsor)
- Monks serve on faculty, administration, and chaplaincy
Parish, Prison, and Chaplaincy Ministry
Monks of St. Benedict's Abbey serve as pastors in parishes throughout Northeast Kansas, assist in Archdiocesan parishes on weekends, and provide chaplaincies for women's religious communities and prison Oblate ministry. They also run an Oblate Program for laymen associated with the Benedictine way of life.
- Pastoral service in parishes of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas
- Chaplaincies for women's religious communities
- Prison Oblate Ministry
- Oblate Program for laymen
Architecture and the Abbey Church
The spiritual focal point of the community is the Abbey Church, completed in 1957 and designed by Chicago architect Bart Byrne, a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright. Its modern, prairie-style interior features side-facing choir galleries for the monastic choir, a nave articulated by four tall piers, a student nave behind the altar, and a monumental 21-by-29-foot fresco. The lower level houses chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Scholastica, and St. Joseph.
- Completed 1957; architect Bart Byrne (Frank Lloyd Wright student)
- Prairie-style design influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright
- 1959 fresco 'Trinity and Episodes of Benedictine Life' by Jean Charlot
- Lower-level chapels: Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Scholastica, St. Joseph
- Abbey Guest House (1959) echoes the church's design
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1982)
Vocations and the Oblate Program
The abbey welcomes men discerning a monastic vocation through its Vocations Office and the Come and See discernment retreat, and welcomes laymen into its Oblate Program to share in the spirituality and life of the monastery. Abbot James Albers served as Vocations Director from 2005 to 2012 before his election as abbot.
- Vocations Office under Abbot James Albers
- Come and See Discernment Retreat for men 18–35
- Oblate Program for laymen associated with the abbey
- Retreat Master: Fr. Jay Kythe, O.S.B.
Visiting the Abbey
The abbey welcomes day visitors for prayer and tours, and overnight guests for retreats at the Guest House. Tours of the monastery are available by request on Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 AM. Retreatants are encouraged to enter into the full rhythm of monastic life: rising for Vigils, joining the monks for daily Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, sharing silent meals, attending conferences, and ending the day with Compline.
- Tours: Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 AM, by request
- Retreats contact: [email protected]
- Switchboard: 913-367-7853
- Closest major airport: Kansas City International (MCI)
- Address: 1020 N. Second St., Atchison, KS 66002
Contact and Department Emails
General enquiries are handled at the abbey switchboard; specific departments have their own email addresses.
- General: [email protected]
- Development: [email protected]
- Retreats: [email protected]
- Health Services: [email protected]
- Mailing: 1020 N. Second Street, Atchison, Kansas 66002
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Fr. Augustus (Augustine) Wirth, O.S.B.1857–
Prior who led the monks from Doniphan to Atchison and opened the first Catholic services in Atchison on Christmas Day 1858; led the first decades of the school.
- Innocent Wolf, O.S.B.1877–
First abbot, elected when the priory was raised to an independent abbey in 1877 — only the second Benedictine abbey in the United States.
- Abbot James R. Albers, O.S.B.2012–present
Ninth abbot; alumnus of Benedictine College ('94); professed vows in 1996; ordained in Rome (Pontifical University of Sant'Anselmo) in 2000; served as Prior (2002) and Vocations Director (2005–2012) before election.