Father Hugh Duffy, OSB
The 1940s and 1950s was an era blessed by abundant vocations to the monastic community. The number of young monks residing in St. Mary’s Monastery at Delbarton grew to some thirty during the school year and to a many as fifty during the summer. Abbot Patrick was moved to make a significant appointment in 1945, transferring Father Hugh Duffy from the pastorate of Notre Dame in Cedar Knolls to Delbarton as prior of St. Mary’s Monastery. He replaced the venerable PV who continued as a very active procurator until his death in 1965.
The New England-born Father Hugh was a cultured and urbane man who had studied theology in Rome and had traveled widely especially among the German Beuranese abbeys where he had made friends with monks who would eventually seek refuge during the war at St. Mary’s Abbey. Several, such as Leo Rudloff, Damasus Winzen, and Albert Hamerstede, had a significant impact on the community and on American Benedictinism.
Father Hugh enhanced the esthetic environment of the monastery in Morristown and imparted a liturgical style and taste that endeared him, especially, to the young monks, if not always to the older, more tradition bound members. He initiated changes in the horarium, moving Lauds from evening of the previous day to its rightful place as morning praise. Private Masses followed and a so called “Communion Mass” for the non-ordained, followed by Prime, breakfast, Terce, Sext and the sung Conventual Mass. None and Vespers were recited before and after lunch. Matins continued to be anticipated at 5:00 PM with sung Compline at 7:30. This schedule remained in force until the major post Vatican II changes in the liturgy of the hours took place.
Father Hugh also strove to foster vocations to the lay brotherhood and to enrich the brothers’ prayer life. He enlivened the life of the monastery by introducing seemingly small customs that he had observed in Europe such as use of the pax-board, an unusual way of sharing the sign of peace, (The kiss of peace had not yet been restored to the Roman Rite.), and the recipe for a Christmas Eve beverage called “Caritas.” Choir stalls were turned to face each other across the small chapel in the traditional manner. Father Augustine Verhaegen from the abbey of Afflighem in Belgium became choir master and introduced a method of chant traditional in his monastery. Another small detail: monks began to wear cowls over surplices, not at all the custom in Newark and frowned upon in our parishes. (The biretta, however, was still mandatory for solemn liturgies.) Incidentally, while there is no proof, Father Hugh is traditionally credited with the authorship of the Delbarton School Alma Mater, “In among the hills of Morris.”
In 1952, Father Hugh resigned as prior and joined a Roman classmate, Rembert Sorg, in an effort to create an experimental contemplative monastic community with emphasis on manual labor, in Fifield, Wisconsin. While there he suffered a heart attack, and had to return to New Jersey where, after recuperation, he served as pastor of old St. Benedict’s Church, Down Neck, Newark, He died in 1968.