You will begin your work in Kremsmünster! Part 2: Looking for a Place to Start

Then came August 1964—still no further responses from the Benedictine monasteries in Europeapart from the tenuous acceptance from Monte Cassino.  This made me wonder whether the project was at all possible.  Fr. Odo Zimmermann was visiting then at Saint John’sfrom our foundation, Abadia Del Tepeyac, in Mexico.  He mentioned that they had needed a librarian at their monastery and school.  But when he brought the matter to Abbot Baldwin, the abbot decided against the idea and wanted me to go to Europe anyhow and give it a try.  So, ex obedientia, I made plans to proceed. 

I wrote to Monte Cassino that I was coming.  When I arrived on October 5, 1964, I explained to the librarian just what it all meant; namely, that we would work with two cameras operated by laymen and that the job would take about five or six months.  Monte Cassino had a good-sized manuscript collection despite depletions suffered during the reign of commendatory abbots in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.  The next day he laid down three conditions: (1) we could not bring laymen into the monastery because of the previous bombing; (2) we could not work there a long time; (3) he wanted a copy of everything that we would microfilm in Europe.  Any of those three conditions would have made it impossible for us to do our job at Monte Cassino, let alone the three nullifying factors taken together.  I also learned later that we could not have operated at Monte Cassino anyhow, as the Italian government would not have allowed it.  That government had ruled that all microfilming of manuscripts and archive material must be done by the government or under its control and that the state provides private institutions with the proper equipment if such work is to be done.  That is precisely what happened at the abbeys of Subiaco and Cava, each of which had a smaller manuscript collection. Each had a large mounted camera from the state and a developing room, and each photographed its manuscripts for us (Subiaco 300, Cava 60).  They did this after two years, though the quality of their filming does not compare favorably with the work we did.  The abbey of Montevergine, which had only twenty manuscripts but was also equipped with a mounted camera had a developing room (it had a precious archives) also agreed to provide us microfilm copies of its manuscripts, but never did so. 

When nothing was accomplished at Monte Cassino, I decided to try my luck in Switzerland.  On the way I stopped in Rome for a few days.  There, through the courtesy of Fr. Ulric Beste, I met Abbot Benno Gut of Einsiedeln Archabbey, who was attending the Vatican Council.  Our project appealed to him, and he wrote to his librarian, granting us permission to begin the project at Einsiedeln.  But even before my departure from Rome, I received a letter from the Einsiedeln librarian informing me that we could not photograph their manuscripts.  He added politely that I was welcome to come for a visit, but not for microfilming.  A few days later I arrived at Einsiedeln.  The guestmaster at Einsiedeln was a fine man, something like our Fr. Fabian Wegleitner, and liked our project.  He put me in contact by phone with the librarian, a monsignor, at Saint Gall, a former famous Benedictine abbey.  The monastery was dissolved in 1849, but the library remained intact and became the property of the Catholic Church in the Canton of Saint Gall.

In Switzerland I experienced the second setback for our project.  I decided to continue my exploratory visits in Austria with actually little hope of success since nobody from Austria had answered Abbot Baldwin’s letter.  I had the feeling that by Christmas or shortly after I would be on my return journey to the States, empty-handed.  From Einsiedeln I wrote to the Benedictine abbeys in Austria, mentioning just when I planned to visit each abbey to discuss our offer.  I allowed three days for travel and a visit to each abbey, beginning the trip on November 15 and planning to be back at Einsiedeln by December 20 to rest and spend Christmas.  As at the four abbeys in Italy and the three in Switzerland, it was the same story at all but two of the ten Austrian abbeys which I visited.  They are located in characteristic Benedictine fashion off the beaten path, and my traveling was all done via public transportation in the late fall and early winter months.  How often did I stand in the rain or drizzle or even snow waiting for bus connections.  But I made it—and survived.

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