Our Lady of Dallas

• The Founding of Our Lady of Dallas
• Prehistory: Cistercians in Hungary
  
• Building a New Monastery: Cistercians in Texas
  
• Our Lady of Dallas Timeline
  

Building a New Monastery:  Cistercians in Texas

Cistercians came to Texas in an attempt to transfer the Hungarian Cistercian way of life to America. In 1954 they eagerly accepted an invitation to join Bishop Thomas K. Gorman’s effort to found a Catholic university in Dallas. The Sisters of St. Mary of Namur, a congregation originally founded by Fr. Joseph Minsart, a Cistercian priest from a suppressed Belgian monastery, were the originators of the idea for the University of Dallas. Cistercians in turn first came to Texas through contact with these same Namur Sisters. When Bishop Gorman took over the sisters’ “university project”, he planned to involve several religious orders. Of those orders, only the Cistercians still teach at the University of Dallas.

Cistercian life in Texas began in a suburban house on Swiss Avenue in Dallas . As the University project continued, the Cistercians were granted a piece of land at the edge of the University of Dallas campus, and they began building their monastery in 1957. In the previous year, the failed Hungarian uprising against Communism had produced a new exodus of refugees, among them a dozen young Cistercians who would soon the new foundation in Dallas .  The first wing of the present monastery was consecrated on February 8, 1958.

In its first decades the new cultural environment and the lack of an overall plan created great obstacles for the fledgling community. Moreover, their abbot was in a Communist prison and their founding abbey had been dispersed and driven underground. Most importantly they lacked financial resources. Under these circumstances, their elected prior, Fr. Anselm Nagy, began a tenacious uphill battle to build the monastery wing by wing, to find employers, donors, and advocates for the community, and to gather together as many of the refugee monks as he could find and house. At the same time Vatican II challenged the monks to reformulate their ideals and their lifestyle in light of the post-conciliar Church.

Bishop Gorman initially forbade attempts to build a Cistercian secondary school, but later reversed his position. Eventually, the foundation of Cistercian Preparatory School became a chief tool for the monastery to obtain independent reputation and support. Arduous beginnings ended with the construction of the school buildings adjacent to the Abbey (1965, 1967) and the emergence of a boys school patterned on a European model combining an eight year curriculum with high academic standards and an educational philosophy focused on personal and spiritual growth.

In the 1970’s the Abbey received its first American-born vocations. Around that time it also decided to declare Cistercian Prep as the first priority among its ministries. New school buildings (1972) manifested the success of the school, and the number of students grew to more than 200 by 1980. The first alumni of the school returned to help their Alma Mater's further development. A Science Building made possible further expansion of the school, paving the way to its current enrollment of 340 students. In 1991 the decision to build an Abbey Church was made. In less than a year the church, designed by alumnus Gary Cunningham and financed by alumni donations, was constructed by alumnus Wade Andres. It was consecrated by Bishop Charles Grahmann on May 12, 1992, and has been the spiritual center of the Abbey and school since that time. In recent years, God has also blessed the Abbey with needed vocations, including alumni of the Cistercian Prep School and of the University of Dallas .

The monks assemble in the sanctuary five times a day to pray the divine office, and prep school masses are celebrated daily during the school year. On Sundays a congregation of approximately 300 gathers for the Abbey’s conventual mass, which the monks accompany with Gregorian chant.