Mount Angel Abbey
Saint Benedict, Oregon, United States
A Benedictine abbey on a 485-foot butte above the Willamette Valley, founded by Swiss monks in 1882, home to a seminary, an Alvar Aalto library, a museum and one of the few monastic breweries in America.
Swiss monks from Engelberg Abbey founded Mount Angel in 1882, and the community has grown on its own hilltop above the Willamette Valley ever since, with its own post office town of Saint Benedict, Oregon. The abbey runs a seminary, sings the Liturgy of the Hours daily, hosts the Bach Festival each July, and operates the Benedictine Brewery, one of the few monastic breweries in the United States. Its library, built 1965 to 1970 to a design by Alvar Aalto (his only building in Oregon), and the abbey museum, one of Oregon's oldest collections, are open to visitors, and the guesthouse runs retreats year round.
Visiting
Mount Angel Abbey welcomes day visitors to the grounds, library, museum, bookstore and brewery (check hours), and books guesthouse retreats online.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Angel_Abbey,_Saint_Benedict,_Oregon,_October_2020_-_15.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0, Another Believer.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories