A path past a stand of evergreens ends in a clearing overlooking a town that doesn’t exist anymore.

A century and a half ago, that town was Doniphan, Kan., a roaring river settlement not far from Atchison, Kan. It also was where monastic life began in Kansas, in the form of what would one day be St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison.

Although the town is gone, the abbey remains, and some of its monks gathered in that remote clearing last Saturday to remember the day almost exactly 150 years earlier when the abbey’s founding monks arrived at that site.

“We want to remember what it was like for those three men to be here and to begin something good,” Abbot Barnabas Senecal says. “It was the beginning of the development of our community.”

A Mass the abbot led ended the community’s yearlong celebration of its 150th year and highlighted some of the history surrounding its beginnings, including the arrival of the Rev. Augustine Wirth, the Rev. Casimir Seitz and the Rev. Henry Lemke in Doniphan to minister to about 20 Catholic families. The wooden altar the abbot stood behind was constructed to resemble the one these monks used to first celebrate Mass there.

“They celebrated Mass on four posts and two planks,” Abbot Senecal says, pointing to the similarly constructed altar sitting in the clearing. “It probably wasn’t as good as this, because we had nails and bolts.”

The simplicity of the altar was representative of both the simplicity of the monks’ lives and of the difficulties they faced due to what few resources they had. Part of the purpose of the Mass was to remember these difficulties, as well as the faith the monks showed amidst them.

“It’s a beautiful thing to know your roots and where you came from,” the Rev. Denis Meade says, adding of the beginning of the monks’ ministry in Doniphan, “There really was no other choice, (except) the Lord will provide.”

Eventually, their ministry led to the establishment of St. Benedict’s, which today runs a Catholic high school and college in Atchison, serves parishes and provides monks who act as chaplains to communities of nuns. In the past, it also operated farms in the area — even clearing a thousand acres of cottonwoods to create ground airable for agriculture.

The monks are fewer in number now than when these farms were in operation, but the small group that gathered in the clearing — about 15 of the 35 who live in the monastery in Atchison, as well as some friends and two young men considering joining the abbey — showed the commitment to God and others that’s still evident in the community, 150 years after its beginning.

“Lord, you call us to serve you,” Abbot Senecal prays near the end of the Mass. “Lord, have mercy.”

The breeze is cool, but the sun is warm. The circle of people stands surrounded by green in the grass and the trees that speaks of life.

“Christ, you support us when we are weak. Christ, have mercy.”

Although the original settlement where St. Benedict’s founding monks served is gone, these words ringing out in the clearing are evidence that their influence remains.

“Lord, you renew our vision. Lord, have mercy.”

Following the Mass, the monks climbed into cars and pick-up trucks to head back to their abbey for lunch — and for the beginning of another 150 years of ministry.

“We want to recognize the sacrifices of these monks,” Prior James Albers says after the Mass has come to a close. “And we hope that we, too, can make similar sacrifices for people.”

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.