Benedictine Mission House

The Benedictine Mission House was founded in 1935. It is an integral part of the Missionary Benedictine Congregation of St. Ottilien (started in Germany), and closely affiliated with the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, who have their Priory in the US in Norfolk, Nebraska.

The Congregation of St. Ottilien was founded by Fr. Andreas Amrhein who lived from 1844 - 1927. He skillfully understood how to combine a Benedictine monastic lifestyle with an active missionary apostolate.

The Ottilien Congregation is today the second largest in the Benedictine Order.

Our Benedictine monastery here in Schuyler, Christ the King Priory, located on Highway 15, four miles north of Schuyler, Nebraska, serves as mission procure for the missionary priests, brothers, and sisters, working in various parts of the world, primarily in East and South Africa, Korea, China, the Philippines and South America.

Fr. Andrew Amrhein started with the foundation of the St. Ottilien Congregation in the winter of 1886/1887 at Emming in Bavaria. From all corners of Germany he attracted young people to the idea of Benedictine life, especially emphasizing the engagement in foreign missions.

St. Ottilien provided missionaries under Bismarck, when monks were not allowed to form new monasteries. However, Bismarck needed missionaries to bring the faith to then German East Africa, later Tanganyika, today Tanzania. The first missionaries were sent out in 1887. They began their work from the island of Zanzibar, and erected a mission station at Pugu, which was the first official mission station of the Congregation in East Africa.

When Nazi Germany became a threat to monasteries and many monks were sent to serve in World War II, the abbot at the time sent two monks, Brothers Felix and Egbert, to the US to help care for the needs of the missionaries, who eventually would not be able to be supplied from Germany anymore during the 2nd World War. The Brothers started to work among German immigrants in the New York area, moved inland later, and came to Omaha in the 1930's. In 1935 they took over the former Notre Dame Sisters Convent in Schuyler, which was located right next to St. Mary's Church, on the plot where today the social center for the catholic parishes of Schuyler is located.

Up to five brothers at a time traveled the length and width of the US at times to gain benefactors and supporters for the Benedictine Missions in Africa and Asia. In the year 1978/1979 the community built the new monastery on Mission Hill north of Schuyler. The solemn dedication and blessing by Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan took place in September of 1979.

In the early 1990's, the Community together with Abbot Fidelis and the former Prior, Fr. Clement Brenner, started to think of widening the apostolate of the Schuyler Benedictines by building a retreat house. This was felt to be necessary in order to become known more so that also people can find us more easily who feel called to the monastic life.

Ground breaking for the new facility was held in April of 1994. On October 25th the same year actual construction was begun. During the cold winter of that year work crews dug out and poured foundations. From then on the work continued steadily, till the St. Benedict Center, the new retreat house and conference center, could open its doors and receive its first guests in May of 1997. In the year 2001, the Center's statistics showed already about 8600 overnight guests and over 7000 participants in various daytime retreats and conferences.