St. Michael's Seminary in Conesus, New York dedicated
Twelve years would pass before the two parties would reach an agreement on a location, not for the establishment of a mission house or a seminary but rather the sale of the O-Neh-Da Winery, which had belonged to the diocese. O-Neh-Da was located near the small Finger Lakes town of Conesus and produced sacramental wine, still legal under Prohibition. Negotiations were completed on July 31, 1924.
The small community struggled from the beginning as the North American SVDs had little knowledge of viniculture. In July 1928, the provincial superior finally dissolved the community after deciding it was simply beyond the Society’s means to make a success of the O-Neh-Da Winery.
Finally, in 1935 Rev. Hugo Aubry SVD, then provincial superior, threatened to abandon the property if the diocese did not give them permission to open a minor seminary in Conesus. The Rochester Diocese relented, granting 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 and Brothers Willibrord Beemster and Joachim Oros left St. Francis Xavier Mission House in Miramar, MA, for Conesus on September 18, 1935. After repairing the existing buildings and beginning to work the vineyards again, the group oversaw the construction of a new seminary building. The first students arrived in October 1936, before the new facilities were completed, and the community dedicated its new seminary to St. Michael the Archangel on September 29, 1937 as the first full school year began.
Fr. Aubry, who had pushed for the establishment of St. Michael’s, became rector there in 1940. He would remain there until his death in 1969, and was the community’s most vocal advocate. Under his leadership Conesus began rapidly expanding, adding new farm buildings and a large chapel in the late 1940s, and a new four-story administrative and residential building a decade later.
When the belated vocations program moved to Bordentown in 1947, Conesus was converted into a high school and novitiate for Brother candidates. Since the purchase of the winery in 1924, SVD Brothers had played a large and important role in the community, and this new focus honored that legacy. Candidates would become Brother postulants after high school, and then move on to the novitiate program before becoming full Brothers.
In 1950 St. Michael’s added a clerical novitiate, and in 1955 a junior college. At its height in the late 1950s, Conesus counted 214 members living and working there, making it the second-largest SVD community in North America behind Techny.
However, as new vocations slowed Conesus began to decline. The Brother formation program that had been in place there for over 20 years was the last to be relocated in 1969. A number of agreements to sell the property came to nothing, and a small community remained at Conesus over the next 16 years. Finally, in 1985 the property was sold.
O-Neh-Da had remained in SVD hands until it was sold in the late 1960s, although after the sale several Brothers continued to work there until their retirements. It still produces sacramental wine.
The text of this page is an adapted version of Communities of the Word, "The Conesus Story" by Mr. John Morgan.