NRHP Reference # 97001637 Phone +1 352-588-8624 Added to NRHP 7 January 1998 | Area 40 ha Architectural style Romanesque architecture | |
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Location Pasco County, Florida
St. Leo, Florida Address 33701 FL-52, St Leo, FL 33574, USA Similar Cathedral of Saint Jude the, Sacred Heart Catholic, St Peter's Abbey - Saskatchewan, Pioneer Florida Museum, Land O' Lakes Branch Li | ||
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Saint Leo Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located in Saint Leo, Florida, United States.
Contents
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History
Saint Leo Abbey, located in Pasco County, Florida, traces its beginnings to 1882 when Judge Edmund F. Dunne founded the Catholic Colony of San Antonio. Sent by Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, Father Gerard Pilz, O.S.B., arrived in 1886 as the first Benedictine in Florida. He was dispatched to Florida in response to a request by Bishop John Moore of St. Augustine for a German-speaking priest to minister to the growing German-immigrant population of the colony. Abbot Leo Haid of Mary, Help of Christians Abbey in Belmont, North Carolina made the arrangements to establish Saint Leo College, now Saint Leo University. On June 4, 1889 both Saint Leo College and the Benedictine mission that would later become Saint Leo Abbey were founded on lands conveyed to the Order of Saint Benedict by Judge Dunne. Saint Leo became an independent priory in 1894 and was elevated to an abbey on September 25, 1902 by Pope Leo XIII.
In addition to providing priests for the churches of the Catholic Colony, the monks went on to establish Catholic parishes in not only nearby Dade City, but also Zephyrhills, New Port Richey, Brooksville Crystal River and Ocala. They even established parishes as far away as Farmingdale, NY and Cuba. In the early part of the 20th Century St. Leo's Benedictines monks could be found in churches and missions throughout the northern half of peninsular Florida. Saint Leo Abbey also sent missionaries to Argentina in the second half of the 20th century. St. Leo continued to supply priests for Catholic congregations throughout Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties until the last decade of the 20th Century.
Abbot Francis Sadlier commissioned an abbey church to be built in 1935. The Church of the Holy Cross was consecrated on January 29, 1948 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 as part of the St Leo Abbey Historic District.
The sixth and current Abbot of Saint Leo is Rev. Isaac Camacho.
On January 7, 1998, the St. Leo Abbey Historic District was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The district is in St. Leo, Florida on the campus of Saint Leo University, located at 33701 SR 52. It encompasses 100 acres (0.40 km2), and contains three historic buildings.
Abbots of Saint Leo
The following individuals have served as Abbots of Saint Leo Abbey: