Beloved clergyman assumes the mantle of leadership at Saint Vincent Archabbey

Although it may have triggered adjustments, even a pandemic couldn’t halt the passing of the baton Friday as the Rev. Martin de Porres Bartel accepted the mantle of leadership at the Saint Vincent Archabbey.

The majestic tones of the pipe organ filled the soaring Saint Vincent Basilica in Unity as members of the monastic community processed into the church for the ancient liturgy that would bless the man known simply as “Father Martin” as the monastery’s 12th archabbot.

In different times, the basilica would have been over capacity as Bishop Edward Malesic of the Greensburg diocese celebrated the Mass and blessing, bestowing the pastoral shepherd’s staff and abbot’s mitre on the new spiritual leader of the monastic community.

“There would have been 1,000 people,” said the Rev. Paul Taylor, president of Saint Vincent College. “We would have had faculty, students, alumni, representatives from the parishes and people from our missions in Taiwan and Brazil.”

Instead, the 150-plus members of the monastic community sat socially distanced in the basilica as the ancient ritual — dating to the founding of the Benedictine order more than 1,500 years ago — was livestreamed on the internet.

Bartel is the latest leader in a line stretching back to the Rev. Boniface Wimmer’s founding of the Benedictine monastery on the edge of the Allegheny wilderness in 1846.

With his election, Bartel assumes the title of chancellor of Saint Vincent College and Saint Vincent Seminary.

Although Bartel, 64, has been serving in parishes in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties since 2000, he has been a monk of the archabbey for 40 years.

And he’s been a fixture in the Saint Vincent College community.

He served as the assistant treasurer, assistant controller, acting provost and acting academic dean at the school before serving as college president from 1995 to 2000.

Bartel, who holds a law degree and is also a certified public accountant, has long been active in the legal community in Westmoreland County.

Students and faculty at the college recalled how he was beloved for being accessible and had opted live in the dorms among the students.

“More often than not, he’d celebrate Mass in the residence halls,” Taylor recalled. “He had a Sunday evening Mass there that the students referred to as ‘the last chance Mass.’”

The new archabbot also gained a reputation as a beloved parish priest in local churches.

Bernadette Deutsch, a member of St. Bruno Catholic Church in South Greensburg, recalled how some of her fellow members wrote the Vatican to complain when Bartel was called to another assignment.

“He was just the most humble man ever,” she said. “He left in July. But my family loved him so much he agreed to come back and do my daughter’s wedding in August.”

His humility was on display Friday as prostrated himself, lying face down before the altar in the basilica as members of the monastic community chanted prayers.

Outside, bells chimed to welcome the new archabbot in the place he has called home for so long.