The abbey, located on the top of Mount Angel, a 485-foot-high butte (148 m),[1] has its own post office separate from the city of Mt.

[2] Mount Angel Abbey was founded on October 30, 1882,[3] by Benedictine monks who immigrated to the United States from Engelberg, Switzerland.

[3] In 1889, at the request of Archbishop William Gross of Oregon City, the monks established a seminary in conjunction with their college.

[4] In 1926, a second fire destroyed the monastery, forcing the community into private homes and the nearby parish school and rectory.

[4] In 1980, Father Bonaventure Zerr was elected as the seventh abbot, establishing a new library for not only seminarians, but for the use of scholarly research.

Though the seminary has historically been the central focus of the abbey, it has also become open to non-seminarians seeking degrees in philosophy and theology.

[9][10] The Mount Angel Library was designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, built in 1970, and renovated in 1980.

[14] In addition to a wide range of books, the library also has an archive of medieval manuscripts dating back to the 12th century.