Abbot Thomas Hartman (1910-1996)
To be elected the abbot of a monastery is a great honor and is a privilege to be able to serve the community. It is not an easy job, though being an abbot has many rewards. Many of the abbots of the community have faced difficult circumstances; Abbot Innocent comes to mind as he labored for over 40 years to save the struggling community and college. Abbot Martin Veth oversaw the expansion of the campus to the river bluff, changing the nature of the glorified high school into the modern St. Benedict’s College. He spearheaded the building of the new abbey and the attempt to firm up and regularize the monastic observance.
The challenges that Abbot Thomas faced spanned parts of two eras: pre-Vatican Council II and Post Vatican Council II. The one era was a “business as usual” sort of time. There were challenges in the expanding college, dropping the long-time favorite sport, football. The other ear was one of changes not only in the renewal of the religious life but also in the life of the very church itself. The role of laypersons in the Church expanded prompting a lay advisory board for the college and a lay dean.
But perhaps most painful of all was the departure of members in the community. Loved confreres and potential leaders asked for dispensations, theological and liturgical differences surfaced, modes of dress varied, the liturgical language changed from Latin to English, and still there were more sensitive areas.
Amid all this Abbot Thomas suffered and yet was unfailingly kind to all who felt the need to go elsewhere. He shepherded two renewal committees and many subcommittees through examination of every aspect of the daily monastic life. His was not an easy abbacy! He found it hard dope out what exactly some in the community wanted.
Abbot Thomas was born in Wathena, Kan., and graduated from St. Benedict’s High School, Atchison, and from St. Benedict’s College in 1932. He had made first profession in 1932, the attended the Abbey School of Theology, being ordained in 1936. After ordination he earned a masters in mathematics from the University of Iowa in 1937 and began a career of teaching math full time at St. Benedict’s College until 1959. At the College Abbot Thomas as dorm prefect at St. Joseph Hall and athletic director. He was at the gym each day and was a terrific handball player. His partners were some clerics, and, often, Father Francis Broderick.
Abbot Thomas amid all the other matters demanding his attention was fully involved in the affairs of the College, the chancellor both of St. Benedict’s College and Maur Hill School. He was the first chair of Benedictine College after the merger of St. Benedict’s College and Mount St. Scholastica College. He visited the mission in Brazil once a year.
After he resigned as abbot in 1973 he became pastor at St. Charles, Troy, and a part-time teacher at Maur Hill. He returned to the Abbey in 1984 after symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease began to appear.
He was a conscientious father to his monks, suffered the departure of some, but treated them with kindness and respect. Abbot Thomas was truly a giant among giants.
Abbot Thomas Hartman passed away March 17, 1996.
