Page 23 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

One of the parks in Saint Cloud was started in the mid 1900s by

the city as a garden along the river. In 1992, one of the industrial
barons in this area donated land, rosebushes, fountains, iron

works and yearly monies to extend the garden above the river to

just across the street from his palatial home. His wife has had
multiple sclerosis for years and is now restricted to the glass

enclosed summerhouse on the lawn of the home overlooking this
new expanded public garden. The result is a two-block long formal

flowering piece of Paradise. It is surely the most magnificent
formal garden I’ve seen since Butchert Gardens in Victoria, British

Columbia.

After a couple hours oohing and aahing among the posies, we

went to visit the two centers of higher education on the outskirts
of town. One is the College of St. Benedict for girls and the other

St. John’s University for boys. They are both splendid campuses
with large grounds. They share faculty but the girls live on one

campus and the boys on the other – about 10 miles apart. The
nuns, priests and monks keep a close eye on everything. The

Benedictine Monks established and administer St. John’s

University. The nuns of The Order of St. Benedict run the girl’s
school.

St. John’s has one of the most extensive collections of ancient

manuscripts in North America in the Hill Monastic Manuscript
Library. The monks are in charge of this institution that cooperates

with other Universities around the world to catalog, microfilm,
and store these precious documents. It was a moving experience

to view some of these antiquities.

There are pictures of the Abbey on the Web site. This huge edifice

on the St. John’s campus is where the monks gather three times

23