Like the Missionary Benedictines' St. Paul's Abbey and Christ the King Priory, the original monastic community in Caracas was established at the behest of Archabbot Norbert Weber in the wake of World War I.

The many visitors to the shrine of San José del Avila allowed the Benedictines to exercise their charism of hospitality.

The shrine inspired the creation of the "Pia Union de San José del Avila", whose members supported the activities of the Missionary Benedictines.

This source was interrupted by World War II, during which the Congregation's German monasteries were forcibly shut down by the Nazi regime.

In 1964, seventeen years after becoming a conventual priory, San José del Avila was raised to the status of an abbey, under the leadership of Fr Abbot Theobald Schmid.

While San José had been on the city's outskirts at the time of its founding, by 1976 the monastery had to deal with the deafening noise produced by nearby eight-lane highways.

On August 10, 1985, the monks took up temporary residence in Camuri Chaco, east of Caracas, while a permanent monastery at Güigüe was under construction.

The monastery also has two novices and one lay oblate[6] Güigüe Abbey is governed by Abbot José María Martínez Barrera.