Transfer of the Abbatial Title

Transfer of the Abbatial Title

For decades, monastic visitators expressed concern about the disunity within the abbey caused by separate communities and schools in Newark and Morristown. Until 1953, as visitations came and went there had been much discussion and many proposals, but no action. The visitators that year set a deadline and the usual thing was done: Abbot Patrick appointed a committee. Its task was to survey the community and to solicit suggestions for achieving unity.

A number of alternatives were discussed such as the separation of Morristown from Newark, the closure of one or the other location, or both, and moving to an entirely new location or the transfer of the abbatial seat to Morristown. In June 1956, an historic meeting of the Chapter took place in Newark at which Abbot Patrick presented his proposal to transfer the title of St. Mary’s Abbey to Morristown, with Newark remaining as a dependent priory. The Chapter voted forty-two in favor, thirty-two opposed.

This radical change was the signal for a construction boom in both Newark and Morristown as long standing needs were addressed. In Morristown, the pressure of applicants and the need for adequate classroom and lab space encouraged Father Stephen to plan Trinity Hall and to celebrate its opening in the fall of 1959. The enrollment of Delbarton School soon increased to over three hundred, the majority now day students, a harbinger of the change to come. Father Stephen retired as Headmaster in 1967 after twenty-five years in that position but continued to serve the abbey and Delbarton School as Director of Development. In 1971, a new dormitory building, the Schmeil-O’Brien Hall, was dedicated in the hope of attracting more resident students.

St. Benedict’s Prep had long had an enrollment of over seven hundred but was always pressed for classroom space and facilities such as a proper auditorium, and cafeteria. This was remedied by the construction of the Conlin Auditorium in 1958. Thus, Abbot Patrick and the Chapter sought to attend to the needs of both the venerable St. Benedict’s and the fledgling Delbarton. Abbot Patrick was resolute in his determination to hold the two houses together but, tensions continued, each house feeling, correctly or not, that its aspirations were being thwarted by the needs of the other.