Special to The Message
In a brief ceremony at the monastery entrance, Owen Meredith was clothed in the Benedictine habit at St. Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana, Aug. 5. The novice now begins a year of monastic formation, including study of the “Rule of St. Benedict” and monastic history.
Novice Owen, 34, is from Forest City, Illinois. He was a member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Manito, Illinois. He attended Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois, graduating in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in theater technology with minors in music and religious studies.
Before joining the monastery, Novice Owen served as a handyman for the Hermits of St. Mary of Carmel in Houston, Minnesota. He has experience as a contractor, general laborer and landscaper and built a home for his parents in Manito. He also was a seminarian for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, studying for the priesthood at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
As a novice, he will take a year off from formal studies and trades. The novitiate is a time of prayer and learning intended to help a novice discern his vocation as a monk. At the end of this year, a novice may be permitted to profess temporary vows of obedience, fidelity to the monastic way of life and stability in the community of St. Meinrad.