St. Mary's Priory

On the very day that Wimmer received this urgent appeal, he detached Fr. Valentine Felder, OSB from St. Mary’s in Elk County, Pennsylvania and dispatched him forthwith to Newark. Bishop Bayley welcomed Fr. Valentine on 17 April 1857 and early in May Wimmer himself met with Bayley to arrange matters for the new foundation. The property originally purchased by Fr. Nicholas in 1846, was now deeded to Abbot BOniface, and included the land on High and William Streets and, several blocks south, a house and parish cemetery on Grand Street.

Bayley expressed his hope to Abbot Boniface that in a short time this foundation would develop into a monastery with a school. He also wanted a convent of Benedictine sisters to establish a school for the education of girls. Indeed, the first Benedictine Sisters arrived in Newark on 27 July 1857. In 1868, St. Benedict’s College opened on High Street under the direction of the monks. From this small beginning spread the future service to the Catholic community of northern New Jersey by Benedictines who would come from St. Vincent to Newark in the ensuing years. Parishes were begun and administered, and numerous mission stations were visited which subsequently grew into parishes.  The effect of the pastoral zeal of the Benedictines in northern New Jersey is incalculable.

Abbot Boniface next informed Bayley that since “the holy rule and prudence forbid to expose one priest at a far distance from his monastery for a length of time, if it can be helped,” he would be sending a companion for Father Valentine. The “minorist,” Frater Eberhard Gahr, a native of Bavaria, duly arrived in Newark on 17 May 1857. Bayley quickly ordained him to the subdiaconate, diaconate, and priesthood in the course of the following week. Wimmer also sent Brother Luke Zeume to serve as cook in the new community.

These happy beginnings were almost immediately cloaked in mourning for on 26 May 1857, while in New York City on business regarding the construction of the new church, Fr. Valentine was struck and killed almost instantly by a horse-drawn streetcar. A stunned but decisive Wimmer hastened to St Mary’s in Elk County, Pennsylvania and dispatched its prior, the Bavarian-born Fr. Rupert Siedenbusch, OSB, to be pastor and prior in Newark.

Father Rupert served the community of St. Mary’s in Newark for five years, until 1862. Under his care, the present church was completed and blessed by Bishop Bayley on 20 December 1857. Neighboring lots on High street were acquired through the mediation of Mr. Johann Radel who wrote that “the Lord Abbot could buy for $8,000” three houses next to the church on High Street, two of brick and the other a frame building.” The brick buildings were arranged as a residence for the priests and the frame building was given over to the sisters who were teaching in St. Mary’s School. In 1868 that building would become the first seat of St. Benedict’s College, later known as St. Benedict's Preparatory School. The sisters were displaced to the upper story of the parochial school on William Street.

Since the city was constantly growing, the authorities ordered the closing of cemeteries within the city limits, including that of St. Mary’s. Fr. Rupert therefore bought a plot of ten acres three miles outside of the city, in then rural East Orange. The first burial in the new cemetery was the translation of the body of Fr. Valentine Felder in the summer of 1860.

In the summer of 1862, Fr. Rupert was transferred to Butler, Pennsylvania and subsequently had a distinguished career in the West. In 1867, he was elected first abbot of St. John’s in Minnesota, and in 1875 was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Northern Minnesota.

Father Utho Huber, OSB, succeeded him as superior of the Newark priory. Although his tenure in Newark lasted only until November 1863, he was able to build the present St. Mary’s School on William Street. On its opening day three-hundred seventy pupils greeted him; their number soon increased to more than five-hundred.