The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-02-17
SACRED
| HEART
CONVENT
Guthrie Would Like to Have
1t Located There.
WAS AN OLD INSTITUTION
First Started Far Back Into
Last Century.
HAS INTERESTING HISTORY
Welded a Big influence in
the Order at Large.
HAS INTERESTING HISTORY

Guthrie. o. T, Feb. 1.-THE city OF
Guthrie has great hopes Of being able to
locate the new Sacred Heart Mission in
this city. The abbey Of Sacred Heart de-
stroyed by fire recently was founded as
an India nmission in 1886, by Father Isa-
dor Robt, a Benedictine monk.
The abbey is located in beautiful val
lev secluded among the beautiful wooded
hills of southern Pottawatomie county,
remote from town or railway, and COM
Dara+ivelv few people in Oklahoma knew
of its existence, and outside of the neigh
boring farmers or travelling ecelesiastics'
the visitors Of the place has been few
indeed.
Travelling to Sacred Heart from Purcell
the nearest railway station, the wayfarer
drives for miles through the luxuriant
Canadian bottom, then spreads his way
among the hills and down timbered aisles
of great forests until suddenly from the
top Of a hill he would vie wthe abbey
as a great pile Of white buildings upl1ted
itself. its windows glittering in the light
Of the declining sun Ike squares of gold
and silver. Around spread fertile, well
TILED fields and orchards and vineyards.
The buildings seemed to float in mid-air
like mirage. A great white cross on the
crest of a hill outlined itself against the
sky and marked the resting place Of the
dead. who were sleeping in consecrated
ground.
The most solemn obligation Of the BEN
edictine Brotherhood IS charity; no trav-
eIer was ever turned from the abbey
door The rattle of wheels always at
tracted the attention Of several monks,
who welcomed the strangers. The guests
were assigned to an apartment reserved
for visiting bishops. which opened on
broad shaded balcony overlooking a pleas
The Sacred Heart was the only Benedic
ant valley and a dimpling lake.
The Sacred Heart was the only Bene~
dictine monastery in the United States
governed directly by the head Of the or
der in France. Probably nowhere In the
country was rnonastic life seen in such
primitive simplicity as at the abbey Of
Sacred Heart. which was buried among
the hills Of southeast Oklahoma.
Many years ago. long before the coun-
try was opened to settlement, Father Isa-
dor Robot, travelling westward, was sur
prised to ind among the Pottawatomie
Indians a number who had embraces the
Catholic faith while living in Mexico.
Father Robot set up q cross in the wild
erness and said that on that spot would
be founded mission for the uplifting Of
those savages. From this beginning
ry-evry tJ,a NAV ~ 4ba Cscrad Heart with
its abbott from France, and about fifty
resident brothers and fathers from
France. Spain. Germany, italy and other
European countries.
The abbey itself has a long building,
shaped like the letter P. Within its en-
closure was the green tufted cloister
fragrant with flowers. In its cool recess
rs. beneath the vine Of the clustering
grape, the brothers in the black cossacks
slowly followed Its path, lost in medita-
ton OF reading the lives Of the saints.
Elsewhere the monks passed quickly to
and fro. each intent upon his task They
were taught that idleness was an evil,
and they should always be dlligent In
some good work There was a college
for the boys taught by the monks. and
& school for girls which was in charge Of
a sisterhood. The abbey farm Is mile
square and demonstrates what may be
accomplished by thrift and industry.
There were fields Of wheat corn and cot
ton, orchards of apples, plums. peaches.
pears, apricots. cherries and extensive
vineyards Each brother was employed
according to his ability One was
shoemaker, another blacksmith. another