Custody of the Heart: Selected Spiritual Writings of Abbot Martin Veth, O.S.B.

Custody of the Heart: Selected Spiritual Writings of Abbot Martin Veth, O.S.B.

Edited by William P. Hyland, PhD

Published 2001 by Benedictine College Press, Atchison KS

Martin Veth was born in Dettelback, Bavaria, September 25, 1874. He emigrated with his family to Buffalo, New York, in 1884, and soon thereafter to Atchison, Kansas. Martin was educated at St. Benedict’s College and entered the novitiate in 1893 and was professed as a monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey July 11, 1894.

Undoubtedly Abbot Martin’s greatest legacy was his role as a spiritual teacher. Through his frequent and regular conferences given to the monks of his own Abbey and the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, Abbot Martin explained with great insight the monastic life and the spiritual depths of the Benedictine tradition.

This edition includes a selection of Abbot Martin’s writings taken from his weekly conferences given to the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica between 1938-1944. They represent the mature teachings of Abbot Martin after a lifetime of prayer and reflection, based on the liturgical cycle and the Rule of St. Benedict.