Fourcade, Baker Enter Novitiate at Abbey
Andrew Fourcade, left, and John Baker entered the novitiate on July 10, 2024.
The Saint Joseph Abbey monastic community welcomed Andrew Fourcade of Metairie and John Baker of Baton Rouge into the novitiate on July 10 during a private ceremony in the Monastery Chapter Room. The men now begin a year marked by a separation from the world and an acclimation to a new life in the monastery.
Novice Andrew went to elementary school at Saint Edward the Confessor and high school at Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies. He attended a Protestant church early in high school, but when he saw a PBS documentary on Benedictine monks he began a year-long journey back to the Catholic faith. He also began discerning his religious future then, and upon his high school graduation in 2018, he became a seminarian for the Archdiocese of New Orleans at Saint Joseph Seminary College.
“I grew in my love for monastic life and the Benedictine spirituality while I was a seminarian here,” he said.
He graduated from Saint Ben’s in 2022 but discerned out of priestly formation at that time. However, “missing the Abbey eventually got the best of me, and so I began discerning a call to monastic life here,” he said.
Novice Andrew began his postulancy at the Abbey in April 2024. He has been assigned to various in-house studies and works since arriving, including in MONKSOAP, in the Cemetery, and in the monastery.
Novice John is a graduate of Catholic High School in Baton Rouge. He attended Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA, before receiving a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Dallas. In 2011, he received a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD.
He taught high school for several years and also served as an adjunct professor of philosophy at Saint Edwards University in Austin, TX. Then, in March 2021, he visited Saint Joseph Abbey on a private retreat and became interested in discerning monastic life. He had learned about Saint Joseph Abbey from Fr. Vic Messina, a retired priest from the Diocese of Baton Rouge who now lives on the Abbey grounds.
Following his visit to the Abbey, Novice John enrolled in the Augustine Institute and began taking remote classes in pursuit of a Master of Arts degree in theology (he is nearing completion). He continued discerning his vocation during this time, but a family emergency delayed his plans until June 2, 2024, the Feast of Corpus Christi, when he entered the postulancy at Saint Joseph Abbey.
Novice John has also been assigned to various in-house studies and works since arriving, including in MONKSOAP, Abbee Honey, and Cemetery and Caskets.
For the next year, the novices will take classes in monastic history and spirituality and contribute to the life of the community in prayer and work. After a year in the novitiate, both men may petition to make their first monastic professions.