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St. Michael’s Abbey had humble beginnings when a group of seven Hungarian refugees from the Abbey of St. Michael at Csorna, Hungry, fled their country in 1950 and eventually came to the United States.
Invited to regroup in California by Cardinal McIntyre in 1957, the priests started teaching high school in Santa Ana and helping in local Orange County parishes on Sundays. In December of 1958, Cardinal McIntyre gave his consent to erect a permanent monastic community and novitiate.
The priests were aware that they alone were free to carry on the religious and educational heritage of the mother abbey in Hungary. Using their savings, they purchased some property and opened St. Michael’s Junior Seminary and Novitiate in September of 1961.
When the school opened its doors, many young men entered the novitiate, and what would eventually become the Abbey community was begun. St. Michael’s formation community was greatly affected by the cultural upheavals both inside and outside of the Church in the 1960’s. Many young men entered the community, but few persevered. On the feast of St. Michael the Archangel in 1968, the Founding Fathers decided to take a public stand of loyalty to the Holy See and the Church’s tradition.
The priests realized that loyalty to the Church and the See of Peter would be the community’s salvation. This attitude embraced both old and new in the Church. Their policy became “not to reject what is good in the old, and to take what is good in the new.” They invited young men of like mind to enter the community to seek an authentic religious and priestly life. This stance has continued to bring in many new vocations.
In 1976, St. Michael’s became fully autonomous as an independent priory of the Order. In 1984, Rome approved the elevation of the community to abbatial status. At that time Fr. Ladislas K. Parker (1915-2010) was blessed as first Abbot of St. Michael’s Abbey. The community has continued to grow rapidly ever since. The abbey began with seven members in 1961 and now the community numbers 71.
In 1995, the community elected Eugene J. Hayes as its second abbot. In 1996, the abbey established a foundation for cloistered, contemplative women in Tehachapi in the diocese of Fresno. The priests of the abbey provide daily pastoral care for the sisters in Tehachapi, and run two parishes in Southern California. Education remains the primary apostolate of the abbey.
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