Building On A Solid Foundation Continued by Martin Brodner, O.S.B.
In the first three years of the Colony the foundations for
the Colony as a German and Catholic community had been laid
with Prior Alfred Mayer spearheading the development.
Homesteads were established, churches and schools built in
most parishes and missions, villages and stores were erected
to bring the needed supplies almost to one's doorstep.
Prior Alfred had also succeeded in controlling the influx
of settlers so that most of them were of German Catholic
descent. Thus the original hope was acheived. Prior Alfred
within eight months had also succeeded in publishing the St.
Peter's Bote, a German Catholic weekly newspaper, which
brought information to the scattered settlers as well as
uniting them. His term as prior expired in April 1906 and Fr.
Bruno Doerfler was chosen to succeed him as prior.
Prior Bruno Doerfler had been called back to the Colony in
January 1905 to be editor of St. Peter's Bote which was at
first printed in Winnipeg. By September the printing shop was
completed north of the log church in Muenster, and the press
moved to Muenster with Bruno continuing as editor until his
election in April 1906. The prior continued being pastor of
the Muenster parish until the monks moved south of the tracks
in November 1921.
During Prior Bruno's leadership the cathedral church was
completed in 1910 and painted to its present beauty by
Berthold Imhoff of St. Walburg Saskatchewan in 1919. The
population grew from 6000 in 1906 to 8,000 in 1910. The number
of monks remained the same at 15 from 1905 until 1919.
However, it was encouraging to have Father Theodore Doepker
and Wilfrid Hergott become the first priests from the Colony.
The solid growth of the Colony encouraged the monks in 1910
to request that the priory be raised to the status of abbey
which established the community as fully independent on its
own resources. Prior Bruno was appointed its first abbot.
Abbot Bruno also brought the Sisters of. St. Elizabeth from
Austria on May 14 1911, to care for the hospital and domestic
duties in the abbey and retreat centers. On September 3 1914 we
also welcomed the Ursuline Sisters from Germany to take over most
of the teaching in the Colony and in their academy at Bruno.