Father Vincent Amberg, "PV"

Father Vincent Amberg, OSB
Father Vincent Amberg, OSB, or "PV," as he was universally known, had a profound impact on the history of St. Mary’s Abbey,  in Newark, Manchester and Morristown. Born in Newark in 1878, several years before Boniface Wimmer was preparing to elevate St. Mary’s to abbatial status, perhaps a friend of Abbot James, a graduate of St. Benedict’s College during the time of Abbot Hilary, director (as the head of school was then) of St. Benedict’s Prep during Abbot Hilary’s last years and the beginning of Abbot Ernest’s, Father Vincent had lived much of the history of St. Mary’s Abbey.

During his tenure as director he supervised the planning and construction of the new school building in Newark completed after Abbot Hilary’s death at the end of 1909. In 1910 Abbot Ernest appointed Father Vincent prior and procurator of St. Anselm. He remained in Manchester for seventeen years, during which time he served as superior, supervised an extensive building program for monastery and college and taught in the college and school of theology. In 1927 he returned to St. Mary’s in Newark after leading preparations for the independence of St. Anselm and the election of its first abbot. Tradition has it that he had been a strong contender for the abbacy of St. Anslem.

Thus he came to Morristown, richly experienced in spiritual and temporal leadership. Abbot Ernest appointed him prior and procurator (busines manager) in Morristown in 1931 to succeed father Henry Becker. He served in that capacity until 1945 and continued as procurator until his death. Among PV’s early projects was the construction in 1933 of the dam which forms the larger lake at the northeast corner of the estate.  Junior monks participated in the construction of what would be dubbed “Lake Vincent,” and which was to become a valued recreational facility for monks and later for students of the school.

PV promoted and oversaw the construction of the monastery building that today bears his name and fostered the beginnings of Delbarton School. By the time of Father Vincent’s death in 1965 at age 87 he had known Abbot James and had served in highly responsible positions under Abbots Hilary, Ernest, and Patrick in the most formative years of St. Mary’s Abbey.

By the late 1950s it was said by those who had known him in his earlier days that PV had mellowed. He did indeed have a rough, formidable, and uncompromising exterior, which, however, masked a gentle heart. The later was revealed by his renown as a confessor to many priests and several bishops. He spent carefully and expected others to do the same. Rarely did a trip to the abbey in Newark include a stop for an ice-cream cone, but if such a luxury was permitted, or indeed, any purchase, change was expected, even if only a nickel. This may seem quaint and parsimonious in later days, but PV set an example to be emulated of monastic observance, poverty, and administration that securely anchored the community in the early, difficult days.

Father Vincent was among the earliest professors of the new St. Mary’s School of Theology, teaching canon law and moral theology though the late fifties. Father Bede Babo joined the faculty for dogmatic theology and was socius, the immediate superior of the clerics. Classes were held in the all-purpose main house and the texts were the standard Latin manuals of the time, Sabetti-Barrett and Tanqueray. Scripture and homiletics were taught by a number of members of the community such as Fathers Benedict Bradley, Hugh Duffy, William Koelhoffer and, visiting monks, Fathers Michael Ducey, Ambrose Gallagher and Ninian McDonald.