Founded on Faith

by Polly Campbell

The first thing you’d expect to see in a city named Mount Angel is a church steeple pointing straight toward the heavens. And that’s exactly what the gray steeple of St. Mary’s Parish in this north-central Oregon town provides to incoming visitors.

Since 1912, the pointed landmark has risen above the surrounding farmland, above the Bavarian-style storefronts, above the German-style brewery, and beyond the blocks of farmhouses and craftsman-style bungalows built a century ago.

But above all that, including St. Mary’s, sits the Mount Angel Abbey—a Benedictine monastery on a 300-foot bluff overlooking the town.

Mount Angel (pop. 3,121), 40 miles southeast of Portland, is known for the abbey and its Oktoberfest. It’s also a place where volunteerism is still in vogue along with the values of its founders. A strong work ethic, community service, and faith still drive the community.

Originally settled by German immigrants in the 1800s, the townsite was called Fillmore. In 1882, Benedictine monks from Switzerland established their abbey in the mostly German-Catholic hamlet, and the town’s name was changed in honor of the Benedictines’ mother monastery. The abbey, with its church, monastery, retreat house, and world-renown library, is now the largest seminary on the West Coast.

Today, Mount Angel is filled with a blend of backgrounds and ethnicity. But civic involvement and the tenets of the Benedictine faith, which call for a commitment to community life and service to others, are still practiced.

“The involvement in the festival and community affairs each year is extensive,” says community volunteer Henrietta Saalfeld, 84, who has lived in Mount Angel her entire life. “I think it’s that Catholic heritage. Whenever you need something, all you have to do is ask for it.”

Each year community spirit is exemplified during the Oktoberfest celebration. Hundreds of volunteers coordinate what is billed as Oregon’s biggest folk festival. More than 350,000 people from across the country come to hear the oompah bands, eat German sausage and sauerkraut, and take part in the festivities.

Eighty percent of the money raised during the event, coordinated by a non-profit volunteer association, goes directly back to the community to support school programs, Scout troops, Chamber of Commerce programs, hospital services, and other charitable organizations.

“We put some of the money aside for the following year’s celebration, then we give some away,” says Jerry Lauzon, president of Mount Angel Oktoberfest. “Since we started this thing 37 years ago, we’ve given away $1.34 million.”

“So many small towns fade away or something gets started and the organization gets old and it fades away,” says Sister Alberta, 83, a hometown girl who joined the Benedictine Sisters in 1942. “Oktoberfest recruits young people, so you’ve got that kind of renewal.”

The sisters established their Queen of Angels Monastery on the south end of Main Street in 1882; the same year the monks began the abbey. “The businesses have remained local,” Sister Alberta adds. “It’s all a collaborative effort here in Mount Angel.”

Due in large part to the migrant farm working labor force in the city, civic leaders are developing a bilingual program that can teach Spanish and English, not only to students but also to business leaders, employers, and families.

“We have such a mix culturally where there is a need for people to learn both English and Spanish,” says Tom Bauman, city councilman and president of Mount Angel Telephone Co. “We’re working on that. We want the community to be progressive but of good quality. There are a lot of good people here that make it a special community.”

Polly Campbell is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

first appeared: 6/29/2003