From The Dubois County Daily Herald
Saturday, January 15, 1955

HARK THE HERALD

Einsiedeln , Mother of St. Meinrad’s
by A. T. Rumbach

As the shadows began to lengthen on the Alpine slopes, we took a final look at peaceful Lucerne, returned to our bus and hit the trail for our next destination, the Abbey of Marie Einsiedeln.

At the edge of the city we halted briefly for a view of the Queen Astarde Memorial chapel, erected on the very spot where the beautiful and beloved queen of the Belgians, a favorite of the Swiss as well as of her own people, met her death in a tragic mishap just a few years ago.

As we proceeded along the highland pass, our gaze was fixed upon the Birkenstock, a lofty Alp across the valley, its snow-capped peak responding colorfully to the play of the descending sun and the creeping shadows, showing now pink, now green, now rose, now purple, like the leading lady on a vaudeville stage under the revolving colors of a spotlight.

A memorable two hour ride it was, indeed, with an ever changing panorama of valleys bathed in sunshine as we rose higher on the mountain trail, then flooded with shadows of the twilight as we descended on the east slopes.   Even after comparative darkness settled upon the landscape, it was interesting to watch the flickering lights of a chalet far up on a mountainside or the lamp-posts of a village draped over the foot of an Alp, trailing away into the even meadows below.

At last the twin towers of the Abbey church could be faintly seen like phantom sentries standing guard over the ancient Benedictine abbey, the windows of its broad façade, lighted for the early evening study of monks and students, tracing its outline against the horizon. On the side on a lofty peak facing the abbey stood a large illuminated cross, the emblem of faith and salvation throughout the night.

Herr Buehler, our chauffeur who frequently escorts pilgrims to this favored spot, took us direct to the Hotel Krone.   After obtaining rooms for the night, he advised us to arrange for a late super, as we were just in time for evening devotions and to hear the monks chant compline.

So it was that we joined a group of 165 pilgrims who had arrived from Frankfurt early in the afternoon, in the recitation of the Rosary in the Gnaden-Kapelle (The Chapel of Our Lady of Grace) in the large and beautifully-ornate Abbey church.   This was followed by Compline, the official night prayer of the church.   The monks, assembled in the choir stalls before the altar, sang the impressive Gregorian chant.   The ceremonies closed the solemn Benediction; as the lights were dimmed and the pilgrims filed out, the echoes of the rising crescendos and the waning tones of the decrescendos of the sublime chant still reverberated through the lofty arches of the abbey church.

The dinner was plain but substantial; Ochsenchwanz – suppe, Wiener-schnitzel, chigory salad with vinegar and oil, Swiss cheese and crackers and coffee.   We retired early in order to join the Frankfort group at the early morning service at 6:30.

By a strange coincidence our visit to this one-thousand-year old abbey took place on the very day on which St. Meinrad Archabbey, back home in Indiana, a daughter institution of Einsiedeln, was observing the one-hundredth anniversary of its foundation. In fact, the Rt. Rev. Benno Gut, Prince Abbot of Einsiedeln, was one of the guests of honor at the St. Meinrad event.

It was through the efforts of the Rev. Joseph Kundek, founder and first pastor of St. Joseph’s church in Jasper that the then reigning Abbot, Henry IV of Einsiedeln, was persuaded to send two of his monks, Fathers Bede and Ulrich, both of whom were closely associated with St. Joseph’s to America;   they laid the groundwork of the Southern Indiana institution which has been a great cultural factor in our part of the country for a century and has well-merited its elevation to the dignity of Archabbey under the leadership of the Rt. Rev. Ignatius Esser.