MESSAGE FROM THE ABBOT

Welcome to the Saint Joseph Abbey website! We hope you find the information included here to be both useful and informative. After your “virtual tour,” we hope you will want to visit us and see the Abbey grounds for yourself.

We are a Benedictine community of monks, both brothers and priests, who pray, work, and live to glorify God. We have taken vows of stability, obedience, and conversion to the monastic way of life, and we are directed by the Rule of Saint Benedict, which has inspired and guided Benedictine men and women for more than 1,500 years and contains instructions for nearly every aspect of monastic life, including how monks pray, dress, eat, sleep, and work.

We were founded in December 1889, when a small group of monks from Saint Meinrad Abbey in Indiana trekked South, repeating the ancient process of Benedictine monastic expansion. Over the past century, Saint Joseph Abbey has become an abiding spiritual presence in south Louisiana and the Gulf South region. We have played an active role in evangelization and parochial ministry, and through Saint Joseph Seminary College, we have educated many of the region’s religious and civic leaders.

You can learn more about our history on this website. You can also read about our apostolates, like Abbey Bread and the Retreat Center, and learn more about the monk-made products we make and sell in the Gift Shop and through other avenues. You can learn how to join our monastic community, or simply how to pray with us in the Abbey Church. You can also learn how your support, both prayerful and financial, continues to be a blessing to us.

Thank you for “virtually visiting” Saint Joseph Abbey, and again, please visit us in person! May you and your family experience the fullness of God’s peace and blessing on this day and always.

- Abbot Gregory Boquet, O.S.B.