Marcel Breuer and a Committee of Twelve Plan a Church: A Monastic Memoir

by Hilary Thimmesh OSB

Internationally renowned architect I. M. Pei commented that if Marcel Breuer's church for Saint John's Abbey had been built in New York instead of the north woods of Minnesota it would be world famous. Hamilton Smith, Breuer's longtime associate, wrote that the completed church was that rare thing, an architectural design fully realized, and he regarded it as Breuer's finest achievement. The junior member of the twelve-monk planning committee recounts in warm and frequently humorous detail how its members related to the Hungarian-born Bauhaus-trained architect who had no background in church architecture but shared their belief in the enduring quality of simple materials sympathetically used. How the strong architect-client relationship survived the strain of disagreement at a critical moment in completion of the church is the narrative high point in this informal record of four years in which the reader sees a masterpiece of modern church architecture take shape.

136 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[X]

Funny, fascinating description of the discussions and debates and committee meetings and assorted minutiae involved in designing one of the few modern religious architectural masterpieces in the world. There’s a level of detail that an auditor would love - the book tells you, month to month to month, exactly how it all happened according to the author’s notes - and I was surprised by & appreciative of how thoughtfully the book captures the weight of interpersonal dynamics, and the importance of how people communicate, to how decisions actually got made. This is a book about the holy mystery of bureaucracy.

This book is also a window into an extremely specific era in Catholic history - immediately pre-Vatican II, when religious life (by which I mean becoming a priest or monk or nun) was still far more commonplace than it is today, and also when even “establishment” Catholic groups like priests running an abbey in the Midwest were willing and able to push the boundaries of what was possible within the Church in service of modernity and art and beauty.

Hovering in the background as you read a book like this is, as always, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and the culture of anti-sexuality and homophobia and misogyny and shame that enabled - enables - that abuse. It’s heartbreaking to know that all of this and all of that was happening at the same time. It’s heartbreaking to finish such a lovely, interesting little book and immediately have to google all the priests and monks involved to see which have allegations of abuse against them - and to have to assume it’s not a question of if, but who.

I’ve visited St. John’s over the years. The church is starkly, movingly beautiful. It’s usually empty.

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look into the relationship between architect and client told from a mid level bureaucrat essentially. I like aspects of this, but probably would have been more compelling sharing the more succinct viewpoints of breur and the heads of the church. fascinating look none the less.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I gotta say is prepare to be sick of me about this place

[Molly Ewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story, told with eloquence, modesty and wit by one of the original members of the monastic committee that worked with Breuer to plan the Abbey Church of St. John the Baptist in Collegeville, Minnesota.