A MONK THAT WENT VIRAL WITH A PRAYER BOOK

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 decades Father Lawrence served our monastic community in parish ministry in the states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Texas. From 1933 to 1950, Father Lawrence served as pastor of St. Edward Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. When he arrived, the parish was in debt and the gloom of the Great Depression made many parishioners believe that it was impossible to ever balance the budget. But, for the next 15 years, Father Lawrence worked with his parishioners with great success in liquidating the debt. And, during his final two years as pastor, he was able to assist the parishioners in accumulating a sizeable building fund for future needs. While at St. Edward’s, Father Lawrence composed a children’s missal, together with a manual of everyday prayers, and published them in book form as "School Children's Prayerbook." It was widely used in Catholic parochial schools across the nation. The prayer book was so popular that it went viral, going through five editions and multiple reprints. Alas, for all those editions printed and sold, we monks at Subiaco never retained even one copy. For the past decade we have been searching through used books stores, online, e-bay, crowd sourcing on social media, and yard sales; all with no luck until NOW! 

One of our long-time partners in ministry –Lillian Hess— happened to read our recent “Abbey Message” and saw the appeal made by our archivist --Fr. Jerome Kodell-- to try to once again find a copy of Hoyt’s book. Lilly had grown up in St. Edward’s parish in Little Rock and was looking through the belongings of her sister, Rose, that had died in 2014. The two "Nabholz" sisters --Rose Marie and Lillian-- had been active in the diocesan church and through our own Coury House retreats. Lilly was a key figure in the Little Rock Scripture Study office and ministry from the 1970s until its move to Liturgical Press about 5 years ago. These two “Nabholz” sisters --Rose Marie and Lilly-- grew up in our St. Edward parish in Little Rock, where Fr. Lawrence Hoyt was their pastor in the 1940s. So, Lilly found a copy of the prayer book in her sister’s belongings that you can see photographed and will make a donation to our archives where we hope to display it. Fr. Lawrence died on December 28, 1952, and at the time of his death he was 75 years old. He had been a professed monk for 52 years and a priest for 48 years. Through Lilly and Rose’s generosity, the first viral publication from one of our monks will now be saved for posterity. UIOGD!