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 Fr. Boniface Wimmer 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 gradually established missions for faithful of other nations, 9 for Indians and Negroes. The monastery continued to grow and the abbey became known as the "Monte Cassino" of America. It founded 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 established 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 later 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. Wimmer, 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 Fr. Strittmatter, the archabbey has 185 priests, 28 clerics, 8 novices, 30 brothers, and 2 oblates. 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.