Our Brethren in Brazil
More than sixty years ago, St. John XXIII invited the Church in North America to share her spiritual riches with the people of South America—not gold or silver, but the wealth of the priesthood and the Gospel. St. Benedict’s Abbey heard that call. Under Abbot Cuthbert McDonald’s guidance, our community looked south, discerning where monks might pray, work, and serve among God’s people in the heart of Brazil.
In 1961 three Kansas monks—Fr. Otho Sullivan, Fr. Matthias Schmidt, and Fr. Stephen Burns—traveled first to Brasília to explore possibilities, and soon accepted care of Holy Spirit Parish in Mineiros, Goiás. From that parish grew St. Joseph Priory (Mosteiro São José), the Abbey’s mission house and a seedbed of Benedictine life for Central Brazil. What began with a handful of monks and a parish has blossomed into a fully Brazilian community, a living sign that the Gospel takes root and flowers uniquely in every place.
Those early years were marked by zeal and ingenuity—and no small amount of homespun problem-solving. Communication between Atchison and Mineiros was difficult; letters took time, telephones were scarce.
Fr. Augustine Rottering, a stouthearted priest with an amateur radio license, turned the monastery basement into a lifeline. On Mondays he would patch our missionaries on short-wave through to their families back home. It was a simple act of charity that knit together two communities a continent apart.
Many Kansas monks poured themselves into the mission. After ordination in 1963, Fr. Eric Deitchman volunteered for Mineiros. The transition was not easy; language and culture humbled him. Yet, after a moment of real discouragement, he chose to stay—an act of fidelity that bore remarkable fruit. Fr. Eric taught for decades in the public schools of Mineiros, served as pastor of the parish and later as prior and business manager, and helped introduce Marriage Encounter to the region. Drawing on practical know-how, he invited agricultural experts from the University of Missouri, promoted local cooperatives, and worked to transform acidic “cerrado” soils by applying agricultural lime. Locals joked the monks were “throwing snow on the land,” but harvests told the truth. His efforts aided farms and families alike, and he championed conservation, helping to elevate the Parque das Emas—now famed among eco-tourists. Fr. Eric’s legacy endures in fields, classrooms, and hearts across Goiás.
The mission’s story is equally rich in quieter wonders. Fr. David Kinish, longtime librarian and chaplain, had a love for plants. In Brazil he identified a new orchid species—Orleanesia mineriosensis—named for Mineiros, the Priory’s home. That small discovery, treasured in a Harvard collection, says something lovely about monastic life: when monks settle in a place, they learn to love its people, its land, even its flowers.
In time, missionary generosity ripened into pastoral leadership. Fr. Matthias Schmidt, one of the original pioneers, was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Jataí and later appointed Bishop of Ruy Barbosa in Bahia. There, encouraged by his priests, he underwent a conversion of outlook—learning to see the Church ever more from the perspective of the poor. He preached with courage, fostered renewal, and, after his death in 1992, was buried among the people he served.
Another Kansas monk, Fr. Herbert Hermes, arrived in Brazil in 1962 and, after decades of ministry, received a midnight letter in 1990: would he accept appointment as Bishop of the Prelacy of Cristalândia? Wrestling before the Blessed Sacrament, he consented—not to prestige, but to shepherd a flock “like sheep without a shepherd.” As bishop he built up parishes, ordained priests, organized pastoral regions, founded a Center for Human Rights, and defended the dignity of indigenous and poor Brazilians even at personal risk. His motto, in life and on his miter, was a simple Fiat—a steady, unqualified “yes” to God.
For many others, Brazil became a long-term home of prayer and service. Fr. Kieran McInerney, stirred by his meeting St. Teresa of Calcutta but unable to take up her invitation to India, went to Mineiros in 1975 and stayed thirty-five years, assisting Bishop Matthias. He helped with the construction of a beautiful church, tended the sick, and shepherded the Priory as superior and business manager. Monks like Fr. Jude Burbach and Fr. Denis Meade also gave generous seasons of their vocation to the mission—teaching, judging with justice, forming novices, and strengthening common life.
All of this steady labor and love prepared a joyful milestone: after fifty-six years, St. Joseph Priory had become fully Brazilian. On July 6, 2019, our brother Fr. Thiago Ferreira Silva was ordained to the priesthood—one more sign that the seed planted from Kansas now blooms native to the soil of Goiás. Today the Priory continues its witness from Mineiros and Goiânia, offering prayer, hospitality, and evangelization to Central Brazil.
This summer, that story came back to Kansas in flesh and friendship. Our Brazilian brothers—Fr. Thiago, Br. Romário Wilson Vianna Peron, and their bishop and former confrere, Bishop Joaquim Carlos Carvalho, O.S.B.—joined us for days of common prayer and table, laughter and shared memories.
Bishop Joaquim’s pastoral vision is disarmingly simple and deeply Benedictine: Jesus is the Good Shepherd; welcome people well; be available; listen and dialogue; honor your community. These are not strategies so much as virtues—habits of presence that echo St. Benedict’s Rule: receive all as Christ, prefer nothing to the love of Christ, and let the abbot (and all of us) strive to be loved rather than feared.
Our friendship with St. Joseph Priory has never been a one-way mission. We gave what we could—monks, years, resources—and Brazil has given us back new brothers, new bishops, and a renewed sense that the Gospel’s “one heart and one soul” can stretch across language and latitude. The monks of Mineiros taught us again how to be poor in spirit, adaptable, inventive, and joyful; they reminded us that monastic stability can travel, because its true ground is Christ.
As we look ahead, we give thanks: for Abbot Cuthbert’s courage, for radio calls that bridged continents, for fields turned fruitful and hearts turned to God, for the witness of bishops formed by the Rule of St. Benedict, and for the living community that welcomed four of its own to Atchison this July. May the Lord, who began this good work, bring it to completion—in Mineiros, in Atchison, and in every place our Benedictine family is called to pray, to labor, and to love. And may our communities continue to honor one another by the simplest Benedictine gifts: a warm welcome, a listening ear, and a place to rest in Christ.