St Vincent College - Tower Yearbook (Latrobe, PA)

Page 18 text:

V W

Page 17 text:

ARCHABBOT Archabbot Strittmatter is known to all members of this Benedictine Community. He is the nucleus of the Saint Vincent Archabbey and the symbol of Benedictine stability. Although he is seldom seen by the student body, his presence is felt in the administrative and spiritual policies which he directs. Right Reverend D nis Omer Strittmatter was born in Hastings, P nnsylvania on August 18, 1896. He first entere a parochial school in Hast- ings and then came o Saint Vincent Preparatory School. He enrolled in Saint Vincent College and at the completion of his sophomore year was ad- mitted to the novitiate of the Archabbey. On July 2, 1917, he professed his temporary vows and three years later was solemnly professed. ln the following three years the Archabbot received the subdeaconate and deaconate. He was ordained into the priesthood by Bishop Hugh C. Boyle D.D., Bishop of Pittsburgh, in the Saint Vincent Arch- abbey, on July 24, 1923. He was previously assigned to manage the Archabbey Press, but after entering the priesthood, he became a member of the Saint Vincent faculty and later served in parishes in Youngwood, Ligo- nier, and Wilpen. ln 1928 he was sent to Belmead, Rock Castle, Virginia where he served as assistant director of Saint Emma's Industrial and Agricul- tural Institute. He became head of the Rock Castle school and remained in this position until 1947. Reverend Strittmatter was then recalled to Saint Vincent where he was to supervise the maintenance of the institution and direct an extensive reno- vation. With permission of the Holy See for the election of a Coadiutor Archabbot, Reverend Strittmatter became the new superior of the Archabbey with right of succession to Right Reverend Alfred Koch O.S.B., S.T.D. The election was attended by 186 electors, the largest ever gathered for the election of an abbot in the United States. Upon the death of Right Reverend Koch, Reverend Strittmatter assumed full iurisdiction of the Saint Vincent Arch- abbey and College. The formal blessing took place in the Archabbey Church on November 25, 1949. Most Reverend John F. Dearden, Coadiutor Bishop of the Pittsburgh diocese, conferred the Solemn Abbatial Blessing on the Archabbot. The Chancellor is a member of the Pope's Coun- cil of Four Abbots and is president of the American Cassinese Congregation. Widely traveled, the Archabbot has had the honor of being one of the two American archabbots in attendance at the Ecumenical Council in Rome.

Page 19 text:

The President's Message to the Class of T963 Gentlemen of the Class of 1963: You now leave the formal classrooms of your college life to go out into the world to face reality: You carry with you the positive values and working principles which your instructors so wisely and so generously imparted to you. But you will also find false values and practices that are at variance with them. Christ's teachings are simple, direct, and clear. Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mincl . . . Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets. CMatt. xxii 37-AOD. But the good seed of love sown by Christ has been oversown with cockle by an enemy who knows well how to distort, disfigure and destroy the love and goodness in the minds and hearts of men. Everyone recognizes the beauty of love, but the times have never quite taught us the folly of hate. More often than not the hater accomplishes nothing save the shrinking of his own soul, This may be why Dickens depicts hate in the figure of a dwarf, the odious Daniel Quilp of The Old Curiosity Shop. Quilp is the pure embodiment of hate. He hates his wife, his friends, his business associates. He makes wax images of his victims and melts them. The point does not lie in the plot so much as it does in the fact that when Dickens, with his matchless insight into human nature, sought to represent hate, he did so in a form so stunted and Ioathsome. You were trained here at St. Vincent to go out as champions of truth and goodness and love. You must never ignore your responsibilities but rather you must learn to thrill to the privilege and opportunity that are yours in accepting and fulfilling them. Selt- respect cannot be purchased. lt is never for sale. lt comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when suddenly we realize that, knowing the good, we have done it, knowing the beautiful, we have served it, knowing the truth, we have spoken it. God bless you ever, I ' Maximilian G. Duman, O.S.B. President 1 Y of his Arctic Ends in the biology lab. ' . 1 , ...,t.ttt..,,..iE31-Lgl ' 'ggiglftfg-5 wviif' t. i Exif t.rfa11.'f'iL'--15, ' in . -mftrsgqsffss sg 1' Wit ,fr - ,ss :Jr-- -IFTE'-' 1' 't gf' My li pt . 0 F ,- ' . 'Y ir -1' f 1, I in ii, 314.1 .. . I. .. Left: Fr. Max, noted Arctic explorer and biologist, in his winter uniform. 'il -f-. Below: Fr. Max takes time out from his administrative duties to check some it f J! 'f-H .,.,.,., , , ,.. .., . h