Dom Edmund Obrecht OCSO Gethsemani Abbey Collection
Dom Edmund Obrecht (1852-1935) served as abbot of the Gethsemani Abbey for
37 years. At the age of 23 he entered the monastic community in La Trappe, France.
He was ordained in 1879 and sent to Rome as secretary to the procurator general
of the three Trappist observances.
In 1892 he traveled to the United States and
following a brief return to Rome was appointed the fourth abbot of Gethsemani
Abbey in Trappist, Kentucky. Over the course of his life he was a visitor to
many monasteries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, and was
known to four popes.
Dom Edmund spent much of his early years collecting medieval manuscripts and
incunabula for his community. In his collecting, he tried to recreate a typical
medieval Cistercian library to illustrate to his monks their heritage. In 1973
Gethsemani Abbey placed Dom Edmund's collection on permanent loan with the Institute
of Cistercian Studies at Western Michigan University. The collection consists
of over 100 bound manuscripts, and 61 incunabula. The collection also holds hundreds
of volumes from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries that researchers
and students of the medieval period may find valuable.
See also: Institute
of Cistercian Studies Collection
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