In the years after Vatican II, there grew among the men at St. Norbert Abbey in Wisconsin a conviction that the Norbertines should have a greater effort to serve the increasing number of Hispanic Catholics in the United States. After some months of research and visits to the dioceses of the Southwest, the Community’s focus centered on the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, where many Hispanic families have lived for four centuries. In 1984, two priests from the Abbey arrived in Albuquerque to seek an appropriate setting for a Norbertine Community.
Archbishop Robert Sanchez extended his welcome early in 1985, when he offered the Norbertines pastoral responsibility for Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish on Albuquerque’s West Mesa, a mostly Hispanic, working class parish. The parish included a former convent that could house a small Norbertine Community. The Abbey in Wisconsin accepted the offer of the Archbishop and sent three more Norbertines to join the two already in Albuquerque.
On September 8, 1985, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, the Norbertines of St. Norbert Abbey created a permanent foundation in New Mexico. Santa Maria de la Vid Priory (Our Lady of the Vine) was dedicated. The Abbey expects the Priory to move toward becoming an independent Norbertine Community following the centuries-old Norbertine practice of establishing new abbeys. The name, Santa Maria de la Vid, was adopted in memory of the first Norbertine Abbey in Spain. It was founded just after the time of St. Norbert and lasted for over 700 years until it was suppressed in 1835 by an anti-clerical government.
In August, 1995, the priory moved to a former retreat house in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Located on a western mesa, it looks out over the City of Albuquerque and the Sandia and Manzano Mountains. Here we are creating a Center for Spiritual Life, not only for ourselves, but also for those who come to spend time with us. We fully intend it to be a place apart; a place of learning; and a place of reflection for those seeking peace and refuge from their daily struggles; an oasis in the desert. It is the environment for our abbey-to-be.
Now, over four hundred years after the Catholic Church came to New Mexico, we are proud to be establishing a permanent location for our Norbertine Community.
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