Our beloved 1st Abbot, Abbot Gabriel, died on March 27, 2010.
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Click on the picture above to read about his amazing life and to see a photo essay of his funeral which was held at Saint Cecilia Church, Leominster, Mass. on April 10, 2010.
Fr. Anthony Kloss, O.S.B.
Vocation Director
St. Benedict Abbey
252 Still River Rd.
P.O. Box 67
Still River, MA 01467
978-877-3694
I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, thirty-six years ago this past July but grew up in San Diego from the age of three. Infant Polio was my first bout with illness and it left me permanently short of stature and with underdeveloped bone structure. I remember always being put first in line in Catholic Elementary School and thinking it such a great honor to lead the class! I was active, though, and able to keep up with the other kids. At Halloween I "trick or treated" up one street and down the other with the best of them all through the night. I was a Cub Scout, ascending in the ranks from Cub to Bear to Lion, and an Altar Boy, in the days when you had to know all the prayers in Latin!
So I had a normal childhood until I was ten and in the fifth grade. One day I had terrible neck pain and couldn't move my head or even open my mouth. I can still remember trying to act as if nothing were wrong and not telling anyone until I got home from school. I don't remember how long it was after this, but my feet were next, and walking became an ordeal. Eventually my hands and arms too, were affected. Yet I still tried to keep up, but my life was changing drastically. The pediatrician diagnosed me with Rheumatoid Arthritis and I missed a lot of school that year, but was allowed to do my lessons and tests at home with my mother who had been a teacher. This was a particularly painful period, not only due to the progress of the disease, but also because of the kids who couldn't understand or accept one of their own who was suddenly different. It is interesting that I am able to trace my religious vocation back to about this time of my life. I believe that my illness and my vocation were then intimately and mysteriously bound together and would render the future offering of myself to God most unique.
Every monk - in fact, every consecrated religious - stands before the altar and vows to give himself to God unconditionally.
No one can ever forget - or would want to forget - November 1, 1993, the day Brother Benedict offered himself to God by proclaiming his solemn monastic vows and sealing that vow by slowly limping up to the altar and affixing his signature to that document.
It was so moving and so beautiful to see Brother Benedict offer his little handicapped body to Our Lord and Our Lady totally for their service.
And when he raised his crooked little hands and prayed, "O God, do not let me be confounded in my expectations," we were sure all heaven was listening and promising to answer his prayer.