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St. Michael's Mission House in Conesus, New York is dedicated

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When Father Francis de Lange, SVD, set out eastward in 1912 to locate a site for a new mission house, he met with Very Rev. Thomas Francis Hickey, bishop of Rochester, NY. Father Peter Janser recounts in the Girard chronicle: “His Lordship of Rochester received him most kindly, however, as soon as he came to the point of his visit, it was roughly refused.” 

Twelve years would pass before the SVDs and Hickey would reach an agreement on a location, but not on the establishment of a mission house or a seminary. A farm and winery purchased by a previous bishop proved difficult for Hickey and he wanted to unload them both onto the Society. Negotiations were completed in a document signed and dated July 31, 1924, by the provincial procurator.

The SVDs called this place by a variety of names, starting with St. Bernard’s (1924–1936), St. Michael’s Mission House (1937–1957), and Divine Word Seminary (1958–1984). Members of the Society always referred to it as “Conesus” primarily because it was physically located in the township of Conesus, NY.

The small community struggled from the beginning, especially due to their lack of knowledge of managing a vineyard and running a winery. The foundation that began with great promise in 1924 ended poorly in 1928, largely due to not hiring a vintner to oversee wine-making. So, in July 1928, Rev. Provincial Adolph Burgmer, SVD dissolved the community, deciding it was simply beyond the Society’s means to make a success of the O-Neh-Da label. The Provincial Council was even willing to sell the property at a loss, “but no organization was willing to buy such an isolated plot.” In 1929, the U.S. government gave permission to the Society to destroy what wine remained since most of it had already turned to vinegar.

After another disastrous attempt to have the winery turn a profit by converting it into a distillery (with the ultimate goal of rehabilitating the vineyard), the Provincial Council decided to play its last remaining card and inform the diocese that if the Society of the Divine Word did not receive permission to open a seminary on the property, they would abandon the site. Very Rev. Edward Mooney granted permission for a seminary for “belated vocations”, men who wanted to become missionaries but had not attended a minor seminary.

 A new group of Divine Word pioneers made up of Rev. Peter Stoll, SVD; Bro. Willibrord Beemster, SVD; and Bro. Joachim Oros, SVD left St. Francis Xavier Mission House in Miramar, MA, for Conesus on September 18, 1935. The next month was spent making needed repairs and improvements on the buildings in preparation for winter. The SVDs consulted with an expert in liquor-making, to revitalize the vineyard. Plans were made to construct St. Michael’s Mission House on the property and on September 6, 1936, the whole community gathered at the new foundation for the blessing of the cornerstone. The first students arrived the next month and were housed in the existing structures. The community dedicated the new seminary to St. Michael the Archangel on September 29, 1937 as a new school year began.

When the Belated Vocations Program for seminarians moved to Bordentown in 1947, Conesus became a novitiate and high school. The training of brothers as missionaries began in earnest with the opening of the brother-candidate high school and brothers’ novitiate in 1947. The high school was a pipeline into the brothers’ postulancy and novitiate program. These programs were closed in 1968 and 1969, respectively.
 
The winery had been revitalized and, while never a major source of funding, the rector in 1957, Rev. Casimir Murawski, SVD, stated in his mid-year to the report to the Provincial Council that it was “a source of a modest income, much joy and many headaches.” It was later sold to another company, although a couple Brothers would still work there.

When the brother novices left Conesus in 1970, a small community of members remained there. In the fall of 1978, Hemlock Lake Holistic Health Center. signed a five-year lease on several buildings at St. Michael’s. Once their lease was up in 1981, they purchased the buildings. Four years later, the former St. Michael’s Mission House building was sold to Bishop Whitlock’s Trinity Institute, a small, unaffiliated religious group.

The text of this page is an adapted version of Communities of the Word, "The Conesus Story" by Mr. John Morgan.
 

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