Boniface Wimmer, OSB (1809–1887) was a German archabbot who in 1846 founded the first Benedictine monastery in the United States, Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
[11] It was also during this time that the King of Bavaria, Ludwig of the Royal House of Wittelsbach, began re-establishing the Bavarian Benedictine Monasteries that had been suppressed by Napoleon.
Saint Michael Abbey, founded in 766 by Charlemagne with monks from the Archcenobium of Monte Cassino of the Italian province of Umbria, had been suppressed in 1803 by Napoleon.
With its re-establishment, Wimmer sought to enter the newly formed monastery and discern a vocation to the Benedictine monastic life.
[21][22] Wimmer felt that he had an interior calling to be a missionary to those German people who had left their native land to pursue a better life in the United States.
Thus he demonstrated a traditional Benedictine preference to establish monasteries and religious centers in farming regions and to work in rural areas rather than urban.
It was here that on October 24, 1846, Father Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., was installed as pastor of Saint Vincent Parish and founded the first Benedictine Monastery in the United States.
On August 24, 1855, Pope Pius IX, in his Apostolic Brief, Inter Ceteras, elevated Saint Vincent to the status of Abbey.
Wimmer became Abbot in 1855, and in 1883, was granted the title, Archabbot, by Pope Leo XIII, as well as the privilege of wearing the cappa magna.
In addition to building up Saint Vincent, he developed a self-sufficient community that ground its own flour, raised its own crops, mined its own coal, and brewed its own beer.
His funeral services took place over a period of several days and were attended by many prominent religious figures and civic leaders from across the United States, as well as his current and former students.
According to The Latrobe Advance, "The body of the Arch-Abbott lay in state in full pontifical robes in the apartments used by him during life until Sunday afternoon," December 11.