Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Following their noon prayer, monks at Saint Martin's College leave the Abbey and walk together to lunch in a nearby building on campus.

Spiritual island

Saint Martin's is oasis among hustle, bustle

Orginally published August 15, 2001

Just after noon on the campus of Saint Martin's College and Abbey, a row of Benedictine monks dressed in their traditional black robes makes their way down a slope to the dining hall that awaits them three times each day, just after prayer.

Time is marked by bells, but the 37 monks who reside here no longer have to take turns ringing the bell. Renovations and technology have made obsolete the once-routine practice.

Aside from their prayer ritual, the religious men make their way on the tree-lined, historic campus by taking on jobs that range from physical labor to teaching classes to the college's more than 1,000 students.

Those who work, study and live on the 106-year-old private Catholic college campus have grown used to the hustle and bustle that decades of commercial and residential growth in Lacey have brought to their borders.

But this remains a refuge of sorts for the more than 100 faithful who attend services here each Sunday, and for many like The Rev. John Scott, the college's historian who's lived here for 38 years.

"We're still an island of green in the city center," he says. "We're more than an aesthetic center -- we're also a spiritual center."

The college is known mostly for its liberal arts education programs, including graduate degrees. And its reach extends much farther than Lacey and South Sound. Dozens of students take part each year in its Pacific Rim programs, which bring many from several Asian countries.

Closer to home, about 600 active soldiers and their families are enrolled in courses offered at Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Day in the life of Lacey index