Blue Cloud Abbey

20th century American Benedictine monastery

Blue Cloud Abbey was an American Benedictine monastery located near the town of Marvin, in Grant County, South Dakota. It was a member of the Swiss American Congregation. The patron saint of the monastery was the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Snows, from which the abbey derived its name.

During the first half of the 20th century, the monks of St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana had operated four small mission churches in the Dakotas, two in North Dakota and two in South Dakota. Their purpose was to serve the local population of the region, primarily the Native Americans on the Indian reservations, for whom they also operated several schools. In 1949 the monastic chapter decided to establish a new monastery to establish their presence more stably in that region and thereby to permit the full expression of their monastic lives. To this end, Archabbot Ignatius Esser, O. S. B., assigned four monks to scout the area. While driving to look at one site, they stopped outside the tiny town of Marvin and saw a rolling, wooded string of hills above Whetstone Valley. The land was rocky but they liked it so they went to nearby Milbank to inquire about its availability. They were directed to the local bank, where the president of the bank, Effner Benedict, told them that the land had just been listed for sale 30 minutes earlier. He offered them at $22 an acre. These Benedictines felt that the good timing, combined with the banker's name, were signs which they could not ignore, so they immediately agreed to purchase the land.

On 29 May 2012 the monks of Blue Cloud Abbey voted to close the monastery. The reason for closure was that the monastery had not been able to draw a sufficient number of new members, which led to an increasingly aging monastic community. After a final Mass on Sunday, 5 August 2012—the feast day of Our Lady of the Snows, the patroness of the abbey—it officially ceased operations, and all public liturgies and scheduled retreats were cancelled. Denis Quinkert, O. S. B., was Blue Cloud Abbey's last abbot. The 14 remaining monks of the community, almost all of whom were above the age of 70, dispersed to other monasteries.

Gilbert Hess, O. S. B. (1954–1970)
Alan Berndt, O. S. B. (1970–1986)
Denis Quinkert, O. S. B. (1986–1991)
Thomas Hillebrand, O. S. B. (1992–2009)
Denis Quinkert, O. S. B. (2009–2012)