St. Gregory’s Abbey will soon begin an 18-month celebration of the sesquicentennial of the arrival of our founders in Indian Territory on October 12, 1875. Our primary kick-off celebration will be at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, October 13, 2025, at the Shine of Blessed Stanley Rother in Oklahoma City.

 In the early 1870s, Church leaders were looking for a solution for the pastoral care of Catholic Native Americans who had been forcibly moved into Indian Territory. Eventually, officials learned of two French Benedictine monks looking for a location where they could establish the missionary monastery that they envisioned. It was thus that Fr. Isidore Robot, O.S.B., and Br. Dominic Lambert, O.S.B., received and accepted the challenge of establishing not only their monastery, but also the Prefecture of Indian Territory, which has evolved into the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. It is time to celebrate what God has accomplished through them and subsequent generations of monks, diocesan clergy and the faithful laity of the Church of Oklahoma!

 We will celebrate the actual 150^th anniversary, October 12, 2025, with Mass at 10:00 a.m. in the Abbey Church. Rt. Rev. Jonathan Licari, O.S.B., Abbot President of the American-Cassinese Congregation of Monasteries, will preside at the liturgy. We expect several visiting abbots, monks, religious sisters and Benedictine oblates to be present. 

 We will hold a larger celebration on Monday, October 13, at the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City. The solemn Mass will begin at 4:00 p.m. with Christophe Louis Yves Georges Cardinal Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Paul Coakley, Bishop David Konderla, clergy from the Oklahoma City Archdiocese and Tulsa diocese, along priests, deacons, and several abbots and representatives of other monastic foundations from the United States, France and England in attendance. In addition, we just learned that Archbishop Peter Wells, Apostolic Nuncio to Thailand and Cambodia will also be joining us. He is from the Diocese of Tulsa.