VINCENT, Saint. - Benedictine archabbey, in the diocese of Pittsburgh in the State of Pennsylvania in the United States of America.
The monastery was founded in 1846 by d. Boniface Wimmert of the abbey of Metten in Bavaria, who together with 4 students and 14 brothers was sent to assist German immigrants in the region and then little by little founded missions for the faithful of other nations, 9 for natives and negroes. The monastery developed more and more and the abbey came to be created, often called the "Monte Cassino" of America. It established the abbeys of St. John's in Minnesota, of St. Benedict in Kansas, of St. Mary's in New Jersey, of Belmont in North Carolina and the priory of St. Procop in Illinois; it founded missions for the Indians in Minnesota and erected an agricultural school for negroes at Skidaway in Georgia; it established in Rome the College of St. Elizabeth for the education of its monks and then contributed to the foundation in 1887 of the international College of St. Anselm. In 1883 the Pope granted the title of archabbey and the cappa magna to archabbot B. Wimmert, who died on 8 Dec. 1887. His successors continued his work, founding the abbeys of St. Bernard in Alabama, St. Leo in Florida, Holy Cross in Colorado and St. Peter's, in Canada, St. Bede in Illinois and the University of Peking. At present under the guidance of archabbot A. Koch and his coadjutor D. Strittmatter the archabbey numbers 185 priests, 28 clerics, 8 novices, 30 brothers and 2 oblate brothers. It has a high school with 300 students, a college with 800 pupils; it directs the diocesan Seminary of Pittsburgh and administers 40 parishes in the diocese.
Enrico Josi