With great joy, the Benedictine monks of St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, N.J., marked their resilient community’s 100 years of strong faith, unceasing communal prayer and worship, and devoted service to the local Church on Sept. 21. They held a solemn vespers service in the abbey church on their palatial campus.
The abbey’s 15 monks — both priests and brothers — also celebrated their community’s dedication to education as the founder of the Delbarton School for young men from grades 7 to 12, which opened there in 1939.
Joining the monks and their abbot, Jonathan Licari, for the service were Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey; Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of the Diocese of Paterson, also in New Jersey; Auxiliary Bishop Elias R. Lorenzo of Newark, who was ordained a Benedictine priest at St. Mary’s in 1989; and Abbot Augustine J. Curley of the Benedictine Abbey of Newark. The Benedictines who founded St. Mary’s came from Newark. Salesian Sister Theresa Lee, diocesan chancellor and delegate for religious, was among those who attended the prayer service.
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Father Edward Seton Fittin, prior of St. Mary’s, said that despite the changes in the Church, society, and politics in the past 100 years, “our reason for being here hasn’t changed.”
“We still praise God, pray, and do his work. Among our vows is the vow of stability — of place and heart. It’s who we are,” said Father Fittin, a Delbarton alum, who teaches two theology classes at his alma mater.
Each day, the monks pray together at four scheduled times. On campus, most of them work at Delbarton as faculty and administrators. Many also perform essential jobs in almost every monastery, including infirmarian, sacristan, and treasurer.
In the abbey church, the monks celebrate a 5 p.m. Mass on weekdays and hold exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the second Friday of every month (except during July and August). At this time, monks are available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
St. Mary’s Abbey also features a retreat center.
Outside the monastery, the monks have served as weekend assistants at nearby parishes, as faculty members at local colleges and universities, retreat leaders, and chaplains for hospitals and other religious communities. Also, the abbey has provided monks to serve as chaplains in the U.S. military.
“Openness to diverse ministries for monks has been a characteristic of this community since its inception,” according to St. Mary’s website, https://saintmarysabbey.org.
In recent years, the monks have demonstrated their adaptability as their Benedictine community there shrinks.
“We are determining what we can still do to respond to the needs of the local Church. But first, we must be men of prayer and fulfil our obligation as sacramental ministers,” said Father Fittin, who was ordained a priest in 1993.
In the late 1920s, the Benedictines in Newark expanded westward into Morris County. They purchased the Kountze estate for $155,000 (about $2 million in 2024) on Dec. 1, 1925. The first Benedictine professors and theological students from Newark took up permanent residence in the mansion and its surrounding outbuildings in 1927 to found St. Mary’s Abbey School of Theology and St. Mary’s Monastery.
The Delbarton School, then known as Delbarton School for Boys, a country day and boarding school located on Mendham Road in Morristown, originally opened in 1939 with 31 boys.
