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Father Elijah Owens, OSB, was elected the eighth abbot of Subiaco Abbey on Thursday, July 7, 2022. He follows the tenure of Abbot Leonard Wangler who served for seven years as the seventh abbot of Subiaco before resignation. An abbot is the head of a monastery of monks chosen to guide and lead the monastery. More specifically, the Abbot of Subiaco is the spiritual head and Father of the thirty-five men living the Benedictine monastic way of life at Subiaco Abbey. 

50 YEARS!!!!!: Our monastic confrere, Fr. Mark Stengel, was ordained a priest on June 9, 1972. Over the course of years, he has devoted himself to service as: a missionary in Belize, an Academy dean and faculty member, an Oblate Director, Formation Director, and many other house positions assigned by the Abbot and too numerous to count. We pray you continue for many more years in God's faithful service as a monastic priest. Happy Anniversary! UIOGD!

Fr. Patrick Boland and Br. Ambrose Fryer have been selected to attend a summer leadership program in Rome, Italy, from July 10-22. This program is jointly sponsored by the Monastic Institute of the Pontifical University of Sant'Anselmo and the Institute of Management and Strategy at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. This program... (click on the title to read more)

SOLEMN PROFESSION VOTE: On Wednesday, March 9th, the Subiaco Chapter of Solemnly Professed Monks received the petition of Br. André Bedore, O.S.B., who requested that he be allowed to make his solemn profession as a monk of our abbey. In accordance with Canon 657 §1, the Chapter voted to accept Br. André's petition and... (click to read more)

Due to the reopening of churches, we are seeing a very low number of viewers to our livestreamed masses (an average of 20 each week). Therefore, after the Easter Sunday mass of April 17, we will cease the regular livestreaming of Sunday services. Check back to this website and our social media platforms for when we stream special events like graduation and solemn professions.

On Tuesday, February 1st, we were honored to see Candidate Michael DeFoore of Van Buren, Arkansas, be invested into the novitiate of Subiaco Abbey. Novice Michael had spent the past six months as a Candidate at our Abbey getting a taste of monastic life. Having been vested by the Abbot at Vespers with the scapular over the monastic tunic, Novice Michael will... (click to read more)

Subiaco monk, Fr. Lawrence Hoyt, was born on April 1, 1877, in Iowa. He came to Subiaco in March of 1897 and professed his vows as a monk of our monastery on October 16, 1900, receiving the name Lawrence. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Edward M. Fitzgerald at St. Andrew Cathedral in Little Rock on June 25, 1904. For almost five... (click to read more and see photos)

The newest edition of The Abbey Message can now be found and read by clicking the title above. This is our quarterly publication that details many of the activities of Subiaco.

IN THE NEWS--BEER & HOT SAUCE!: Arkansas PBS recently visited our abbey to learn about our hot sauce and beer brewing operations. Br. Sebastian and Fr. Richard are interviewed by Lauren McCullough for the first part of this "Good Roots" segment. Click on the title of the post to access the link to view and listen. UIOGD!

ARCHIVES—“BACULUM SENECTUTIS”: Celebrations involving the anniversary of the monastic profession of a monk are ones we look forward to each year. The 50th anniversary of monastic profession (sometimes referred to as a “Golden Anniversary”) are especially ones that our monastic order has honored and celebrated with particular flourish. For many years, abbeys in our Confederation even celebrated a... (click to read more and see photos)

ARCHIVE SUNDAY—SAWMILL & LOGGING: On March 15, 1878, the three founders of our monastery arrived from Indiana. On March 16th they set about building an altar. They had only an old hatchet, but a young man by the name of Mr. Gruwe (later to become a monk and priest) took on the task. Listen here to the tale recounted by Fr. Luke Hess: [A few saplings, cut in the bush, were nailed together with... (click to read more and see photos)

ARCHIVE SUNDAY—OUR WATER TOWER: On December 20, 1927, our monastery of Subiaco was almost completely destroyed by a fire. A lack of water to fight the fire was one of the primary reasons for the extensive damage. To make matters worse, within one year Subiaco would also lose our auditorium to another fire that could not be contained. The monks quickly resolved to get control of this lack of water by deciding to... (click to read more and see photos)

ACCEPTED FOR SOLEMN PROFESSION: Last night (26 May) the Chapter of Solemnly Professed monks of Subiaco Abbey met and considered the application of Br. Ambrose Fryer to be accepted for solemn profession in our monastic community. John Fryer of Alexandria, LA, following the call of God, entered our abbey in 2017 and undertook a period of Candidacy, followed by his novitiate of a year and a day. On Feb. 2, 2019, he then... (click to read more and see photos)

MONKS IN TRANSITION: One of the great gifts of monastic life is the ability to explore varying fields of education or professions over the course of your life. Two of our monks (Brother Gabriel and Brother Raban) have just arrived at a major moment of transition. Say a prayer for both of our brothers as they make these wonderful but challenging educational transitions in their lives (one training for nursing and one training for priesthood). Click to read the full story and see photos.

ST. BENEDICT PARISH PLEDGE: The Parish of St. Benedict at Subiaco has been integrally tied to our Abbey since 1878 when Fr. Wolfgang Schlumpf arrived and celebrated the first Mass as the Prior of this new Arkansas monastic foundation. Only a few short months later the Parish and Abbey would also found a co-educational parochial school where classes were held for the German speaking children (St. Benedict Parochial School would exist until its closure in 1991). Over the years... (click to read more and see photos)

OUR FIRST VIRAL PHOTOS: It was September of 1948 when Abbot Paul Nahlen set out to pick some cotton with the priests, brothers, and students of the Abbey boarding school. For two decades the Abbey had been trying to raise money to build a new Church, and Abbot Paul desperately wanted to see it completed. Many photos were taken that day, but two would become somewhat famous. By the time it was fully syndicated, the...(click to read more and see photos)

BELLS OF SUBIACO: Ask any former boarding student of Subiaco and they will tell you that one of the unspoken benefits to later college life is that because a Subiaco student can sleep through bells ringing every 15 minutes of his life, then he can sleep through ANYTHING in a college dorm! Over the years, only a few select Subiaco students have been able to climb the internal ladder in the tower to see the bells in their home...(click to read more and see photos)

ST. BENEDICT PAROCHIAL SCHOOL: People rightly associate Subiaco ABBEY with Subiaco ACADEMY, our primary apostolate that we date having begun in 1887. What people often fail to realize is that the Abbey actually had TWO educational endeavors operating at the same time on neighboring land for over one hundred years. It was in March of 1878 that the new parish of St. Benedict would be created when the monks first arrived in Arkansas. It was then ... (click to read more and see photos)

COMMUNICATION: In the earliest years of the founding of our Abbey in 1878, communication with our mother abbey (St. Meinrad in Indiana) and grandmother abbey (Maria Einsiedeln in Switzerland) was accomplished through the mail (which took lots of time) or sending a telegram (much quicker but requiring travel to neighboring large cities to send it). Since the monks ... (click to read more and see photos)

St. Benedict in his Rule desired that monasteries might be self-supporting. Even today many monasteries across the world have gardens for food and tea; bees for honey and wax; farms with cattle, pigs, chickens, rabbits, sheep, and lamas; lakes for cultivating fish; solar, wind, and hydrothermal power for energy production; and produce a range of products for commercial sale. At Subiaco we have ... (click to read more and see photos)