These monks from Indiana traveled to Louisiana at the invitation of the Most Reverend Francis Janssens to form a college seminary for training local vocations.

The traveling monks from St. Meinrad Abbey originally chose a spot of land consisting of seventeen hundred acres located in Ponchatoula, Louisiana near Baton Rouge.

[1] After just a few years at this location, the monks encountered many hardships including unworkable land, and illness caused by mosquitoes.

[2] In 1902 the monks decided to relocate the monastery and seminary to a former rice plantation at St. Benedict, Louisiana near Covington north of New Orleans.

Today the seminary has become an undergraduate college offering bachelor's degrees in Liberal Arts to men seeking to become Roman Catholic Priests.

[2] The monks' individual talents, training, and past professional experience prior to taking monastic vows included architecture, construction and farming, and served them well.

The monks follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, based on the tradition Ora et labora (pray and work).

The monks of St. Joseph pray the liturgy of the hours four times every day starting at 6:00 a.m. Centering on the Holy Mass at mid-day and ending with compline at 7:15 pm.

The monks of St. Joseph Abbey have faithfully provided the area of Southern Louisiana with an intimate immersion in the Rule of St. Benedict, and have instructed countless others in the way of Christian Holiness.

[6] Some of these organizations include local food banks, senior centers, the Salvation Army, New Orleans Ministries and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

After Hurricane Katrina leveled many of the trees in St. Tammany Parish in 2005, the monks revived the ancient monastic practice of casket making.

Writing in the National Review, Veronique De Rugy noted that eight of the nine members of the government board work in the funeral industry.

Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a unanimous landmark decision that "[t]he great deference due state economic regulation does not demand judicial blindness to the history of a challenged rule or the context of its adoption nor does it require courts to accept nonsensical explanations for regulation.

In 2001 under the leadership of Dr. Chris Baglow and the seminarians of Saint Joseph Seminary College the Abbey Youth Fest was initiated, and has evolved into the largest event in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, drawing over 4,500.

Its focus is evangelization and vocational discernment by means of Liturgy, prayer, worship, music and education appropriate for Catholic young people ages 12 and up.