In connection with our series on the “Love of Learning,” we present an article oringinally published in The Providence Vistior, the former newspaper of the Diocese of Providence, on January 29, 1926. A copy of the original paper was recently discovered in our monastic library collections.

Front page, The Providence Visitor, January 29, 1926

Benedictines to Found School in Portsmouth.
Institution in Providence Diocese Will be First in Country.
—Will Open in September

PROJECT IS APPROVED BY BISHOP HICKEY

School to be Exclusively for Boys.
-Members Coming Over From Scotland to Teach

The first Benedictine school in the United States is to be opened in the Diocese of Providence next September. It will be located in Portsmouth Priory, which property was acquired by Fr. Leonard Sargent, who is at present in charge. Announcement was made this week that the full approbation of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hickey has been obtained for the project.

Bishop William Hickey oversaw the creation of
numerous Catholic schools within the diocese in the 1920’s,
including Mt. St. Charles, St. Raphael’s, and De La Salle in Newport.

A Boy’s School

It is the plan of the Benedictines to open the school on a modest scale. About a dozen boys will be gathered together under the tutorship of five priests and as many lay teachers as will be required. Four members of the Fort Augustus Community, Scotland, are to come over and at least one will be sent to Portsmouth from St. Anselm’s Priory, Catholic University, Washington. The course will be for six years and preparatory to college. The school will be conducted for boys only, ranging in age from thirteen years upward, all of whom will be resident pupils.

A Downside Foundation

Portsmouth Priory is a Foundation of Downside Abbey, England, and until a few weeks ago was a subject-Priory of that Abbey. This is no longer the case, as the Priory has been transformed to the jurisdiction of Fort Augustus Abbey, Scotland. This Abbey belongs to the same Congregation as Downside, the English Congregation, and already has a well established school house in this country. This is St. Anselm’s Priory at the Catholic University, Washington, D.C. After full deliberation it was decided that it would be for the best interests of the English Benedictines in the United States to have these two Priories under the jurisdiction of the same abbey, and, to give effect to this desire, the Abbot and Chapter of Downside have very generously donated the beautiful property at Portsmouth, R.I., and the Priory buildings with their equipment to Fort Augustus.

The exchange thus effected will make it possible to carry out an intention that has been held from the first, to open somewhere in this country an English Benedictine school for boys. All definite steps, however, toward the realization of these plans were held in abeyance until the whole scheme had been laid out before the Rt. Rev. Bishop of Providence, in whose diocese Portsmouth is situated. Bishop Hickey’s cordial response, his commendation of the work, and his warm wishes for its success are among the happiest auspices under which this new phase in the life of Portsmouth Priory will be begun.

Fr. Sargent Acquires Property

Dom Leonard Sargent, founder of monastery

The Priory has thus far been identified with Fr. Leonard Sargent. The property was acquired by him. Its present excellent condition, the equipment of the buildings and the very interesting and serviceable library are due to him, and it was he who encountered, sometimes almost alone, the inevitable difficulties and troubles of the Priory’s pioneer years. In an announcement made by Fr. Sargent at the inauguration of the work, he stated the aims of the house as being threefold: First, the public recitation of the Divine Office; second, some form of contribution to ecclesiastical scholarship along with the building up of a library; third, hospitality to priests and laymen who desire spiritual rest and refreshment. Few people not intimately acquainted with the quiet and almost hidden life of this little religious house, realize how successfully a considerable part of this program has already been carried out.

Aims Not Changed

In passing into new hands these aims will not be changed. There will be immediately added to them, however, the fourth one to which reference has already been made: namely a boys’ school; this also had been envisaged by Fr. Sargent as a possibility for the future.

Benedictine Houses very generally have schools attached to them. The large abbeys of other congregations in this country have followed this practice. In England, Benedictines regard the education of boys as their chief external work. In its results, both spiritual and intellectual, it is believed that a richer harvest is gathered for Church and Country than by parochial and missionary activities, or in fact than by any other form of work.

This high ideal of education, and the realization of the role that educated Catholics may be fitted to play in a predominantly Protestant country is the explanation of the great place taken in national education in England by Benedictine schools. Those at Downside and Ampleforth are already well known to many Americans. They easily take equal rank in all respects with the great and famous public schools of England, and are known everywhere for the breadth and thoroughness of the education they impart, and for the high standards of the graduates they send into the world. A notable characteristic of these schools is the close and intimate relations that exist between them and all the deeper currents of the national life. Arts and letters, science and industry the army and navy, and the civil service, now have Catholic names inscribed on their lists, much in excess of the proportion of Catholics to the population of the country. This re-establishment of Catholics in their rightful place among the ruling and guiding forces of the national life is to a considerable extent due to the influence of such school as we are describing.

Beginning To Be Small

All this however, so far as the present undertaking is concerned, suggests only a vision into, perhaps only a dream of, the far future. The school at Portsmouth will be started it is hoped on sure foundations, but its beginnings will be very small.

Hugh Diman, founder of the school

Owing to the fact that there have been many delays in coming to the final decisions, no attempt will be made to do anything more for next fall, than to take possession, and to gather a small group of boys, perhaps a dozen or fifteen, who will be the nucleus of a much larger school the following year. Preparations are already under way to open next September with about this number of boys.