St. John's Abbey Church, Collegeville, Minnesota (1953--1961): The Benedictines and Marcel Breuer search for the sacred

The design of St. John's Abbey Church in Collegeville, Minnesota (1953–1961) demonstrates how a patron with an agenda, in this case the Benedictines supporting new liturgical reforms, can dictate the shape of modern sacred space. Led by Abbot Baldwin Dworschak, the brethren of St. John's put forth a powerful call to architects around the world in 1953 in their quest to design a building that would be significant in the history of American religious architecture. This study is important because the liturgical concerns evaluated and presented in the church's design predate the decrees of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), usually considered to be the watershed event in the development of a modern liturgical architecture for the Roman Catholic Church. Several of the St. John's Benedictines were involved in the preparations for the Council and through these men, numerous key architectural elements of the church were worked out with the Vatican and liturgical leaders in Europe.; In addition to the liturgical experimentation occurring in Collegeville, the Benedictines decided that their new ideas were best shaped by a modern architect with an appreciation of functionalism, modern materials, and modern technology. Their prayers were answered when they selected the Hungarian-born, Bauhaus-trained designer Marcel Breuer (1902–1981) from a list of twelve international architects, all with a preference for modern design. The Benedictines worked together with Breuer to build a church that responded to reformed liturgical needs with a contemporary architectural expression, a building that transcended centuries and styles and gave them a place in the history of inventive monastic architecture. It also once again located the structures of organized religion at center stage in the history of American architecture, this time as a purpose-built paradigm of monasticism and liturgical reforms.