Mission to America: A History of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the First Benedictine Monastery in the United States

Using American and European archival sources, as well as documents and letters in Saint Vincent records, Oetgen covers the entire one-hundred-and-fifty-year history of the monastery, its missions and schools, in chronological order.

"A lasting contribution to American church history. . . . By investigating the differences in articulation that each successive (arch)abbot brought to Saint Vincent, Oetgen is able to show both historical progression and theoretical development. It is unusual for an institutional history to accomplish that pairing so seamlessly and successfully. This is an enormously insightful work, one that students-as well as those with a more casual interest-of American religious history will find compelling, informative, and instructive. The depth of Oetgen's understanding, both of how a monastery works and how it strives to work, keeps this story fascinating and current at all points in the narrative."-Dom Paschal Baumstein, O.S.B.

"Saint Vincent's has a unique history and deserves, by its pride of place and influence, a well-documented and scholarly study. This book fills a long-neglected void in American Catholic historiography."-Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M.