CANFIELD — For 80 years, the St. Paul Monastery / Society of St. Paul has provided a home for retired members of the congregation, and it remains an important part of the community as it continues to maintain the St. Anthony WaySide Shrine and a Memorial to the Unborn.

The Rev. Matthew Roehrig, spokesman for the monastery, said the monastery’s 80th anniversary will be marked in May with an 11 a.m. Mass with Bishop David Bonnar of the Diocese of Youngstown, and Father Gabriel Rendon, the provincial superior of Mexico, Cuba, USA Provence.

On May 19, after the 10 a.m. Mass, there will be a blessing outside where there are plans for a rosary garden next to St. Paul Books and Gifts.

“We have a lot of statues on the property and what we are aiming for with the rosary garden is to have an additional place for spirituality and calmness,” Roehrig said, noting there are statues of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette. Around the cemetery are the Stations of the Cross.

Eight priests live at the monastery, with most 80 and older.

“We are not a parish that does weddings or baptisms, but we do have a congregation of lay people and priests,” Roehrig said. “We are not affiliated with the Diocese, but follow the guidelines of the Diocese.”

He said 70 to 100 people attend the Sunday Mass and others attend the weekday Masses, noting that people like traveling to the location for worship.

“There are people whose families have been coming here for 80 years,” he said. “They have gotten to know our priests and brothers. People come here for their spirituality with the Mass and sermon.”

It also provides a place of worship for the in-residence priests.

Roehrig said the original 250-acre property in the 1940s had a stone house that was later taken down in the late 1990s. In the 1940s, it was owned by the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown. The property was later expanded to 350 acres with a chapel and monastery.

A barn used to stand where the current church is located, Roehrig said.

The property consists of 250 acres of farmland, a late 19th century mansion owned at one time by the Harding family, and has a barn and several other buildings. A chapel was established in the barn and within a year, a new print shop was built so that the novices and members could launch a variety of apostolic activities.

From the very beginning, the community erected outdoor statues of Christ, Mary Queen of Apostles, Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Paul. A cemetery for deceased priests and brothers of the Society of St. Paul is located at the back of the property as well.

“We do not know the future. We just became a new province. The Mexico, Cuba USA Province is about a year old. With the Catholic church, there are different congregations. We as religious congregations have provinces that cover a specific area similar to a diocese,” Roehrig said. “We were previously known as the US Province, with communities in Michigan, Staten Island, New York. It was hard for us to sustain ourselves with 10 members who decided geographically we would join the Mexico, Cuba, USA Province, which has more and younger members. We are now a little larger with five communities here and five communities in Mexico.”

Some of the property at the monastery has been sold as the land off U.S. Route 224 between Knauff Road and the Meander Creek Bridge is 57 acres.

Roehrig said Out of the House Communications was started with records and cassettes. He said CDs and other items are available at the bookstore.

The community had an apostolic initiative from the very beginning and Catholic Home Messenger, a national magazine, began in 1946. It ceased publication in 1968. In 1953, Pastoral Life, a magazine for priests, began and eventually reached nearly 8,000 priests. Years later, the publication ceased.

“I think it is great that we have been here for 80 years,” Roehrig said. “Many people have come to know us. Over the years, we published magazines here which have ceased publication such as the Catholic Home Messenger and Pastoral Life. We still publish, but not as much as we used to.”

The books at the store are through St. Paul Publishing with the main publishing house in Staten Island. In 1968, Alba House Communications was launched to produce and distribute cassettes, filmstrips, records and other communication materials.

BOOKSTORE

Dee Tripp, administrator of the bookstore, said “It’s amazing to think of the millions of lives they have touched over the last 80 years and still do with their spiritual guidance and friendship.”

Tripp said the priests are continuing to spread the word of God in many ways — one of which is the St. Paul Books & Gifts Store.

She said the store offers a variety of bibles and other religious books as well as special gifts for baptism, first Communion and confirmation.

“We have a group of great volunteers who work in the store and a group that helps maintain the grounds,” Tripp said. ” We are so blessed to have them and look forward to many more years of their spiritual guidance and friendship.”

HISTORY

Bishop James McFadden, the first Bishop of Youngstown, knew and highly respected Father Francis X. Borrano, who had preached several missions in the Cleveland Diocese to Italian parishes. While visiting the Society of St. Paul on Staten Island, McFadden extended an invitation to Borrano to come to the new diocese that had just been formed one year earlier.

The Ursuline Sisters owned a 250-acre property in Canfield / Ellsworth, which he offered to sell to the society so that the sisters could move closer to the city. The Society accepted the offer and the first Paulines arrived in Ohio on May 9, 1944.

McFadden liked the term “monastery” and he named the facility accordingly. The location has been called St. Paul Monastery ever since.

The first shrine to St. Anthony was made of wood and had a statue of Mary, Queen of Apostles, and a large crucifix along with a statue of the beloved saint. In early 1948, the shrine caught fire and was destroyed. A smaller outdoor location with a statue of St. Anthony was erected and was replaced by the current shrine built in the late 1950s. The current “Wayside Shrine” to St. Anthony draws about 5,000 people a year.