A statue of St. Dominic greets retreatants. It was carved from cedar by chainsaw artist Bill Tower and dedicated August 2005. (Kristen Hannum/Catholic Sentinel)
Brian Ellsworth and Britt Atack took part in the 1985–86 Marist High School retreat at St. Benedict Lodge. (Courtesy Marist Brother James Halliday)
The church at St. Benedict Lodge (Kristen Hannum/Catholic Sentinel)
The chapel interior has a vaulted ceiling. (Kristen Hannum/Catholic Sentinel)
The Holiday Farm Fire of 2020, which decimated the industrial tree plantations west of St. Benedict Lodge, came within a couple miles of the retreat center’s property.
Jesuit High School retreatants, with St. Benedict Lodge behind them, look up for the drone that is shooting their photo. (Courtesy Jesuit High School)
Jesuit High students Dominic Ricci and Grace Denny soak in sunshine on the deck at St. Benedict Lodge during their Junior Encounter Retreat. (Courtesy Jesuit High School)
Dominican Fr. Kieran Healy’s garden is protected from deer, who are also attracted to the retreat center’s peaceful setting. (Kristen Hannum/Catholic Sentinel)
Stacey Baker, assistant principal and Junior women’s Encounter moderator at Marist High School, speaks to a group of students, the massive fireplace behind her and the sound of the river a muted roar in the background. (Courtesy Marist High School)
Marist High School students from Eugene pose for a photo at St. Benedict Lodge. Rick Martin, director of campus ministry, hails the charism of welcome shown by local Dominicans. (Courtesy Marist High School)
William Biyinzika Lovell, Marist Class of 2018, reads the Bible on the bank of the McKenzie River during his Junior Encounter Retreat. (Courtesy Marist High School)
In the March 2019 snow storm a large tree fell on one of the retreat houses, damaging the roof and gutters. (St. Benedict Lodge Facebook grab)
Dominican Brother Lupe Gonzalez and Dominican Fr. Kieran Healy clear fallen trees from the roads. In total, a March 2019 snow storm felled more than 30 trees around the property . Roads were closed for some time. (St. Benedict Lodge Facebook grab)
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Why it’s St. Benedict’s Lodge instead of St. Dominic’s
“Millionaire becomes monk: History of McKenzie Bridge” was the title of retired Baker Bishop Francis Leipzig’s article on St. Benedict Lodge that ran in the Catholic Sentinel in 1978.
In that article and others, the Catholic Sentinel recorded how Kenyon Reynolds, a Californian oil engineer and Catholic convert, bought the “North Bank Farm” in 1938, paying $5,000 for the 40 acres.
Kenyon and Patricia Reynolds thought their new Oregon property’s shortcoming lay in the fact that St. Mary Church in Eugene was too far to go for daily Mass.
Reynolds reached out to the Benedictines at Mount Angel Abbey, and they agreed to send a priest if Reynolds would build a chapel and a residence for him.
In 1941 the Catholic Sentinel reported: “Situated on the beautiful McKenzie river, we find St. Benedict’s Lodge, a chapel and home where the Rev. Father Charles, OSB, former assistant here, says his Mass daily on weekdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 8 o’clock. This establishment was made possible and is maintained by Mr. and Mrs. Kenyon Reynolds of Pasadena, Calif. They make this oasis of beauty their home during the summer months.”
In 1945 Patricia Reynolds died of cancer.
After her funeral Mass at St. Benedict Lodge, Mount Angel Abbot Thomas Meier suggested to the grief-stricken, 53-year-old Reynolds that he study for the priesthood.
Kenyon Reynolds became Benedictine Father Bede Reynolds of Westminster Abbey, Mission City, British Columbia — but first he gave his home in California to the diocese there and the rest of his assets to a variety of church recipients. In 1946 he turned over the deed for St. Benedict Lodge to the Franciscans, who hoped to build a monastery there.
The Franciscans struggled to maintain the property, and in 1954 they sold it (for a reported $1) to the Dominicans, who immediately built A-frame structures and began scheduling Dominican seminarians to spend their summer retreats on the McKenzie over the coming decades. The Dominicans also oversaw the building of the larger chapel. A 2005 capital campaign upgraded that chapel with new roofing, windows, insulation, kitchen and sanctuary improvements.
The property is now also larger: 70 acres instead of 40.
As for Father Bede, in his book “A Rebel from Riches,” he wrote, "I am now living out my life as one of God’s ‘hired men.’ God has paid me in advance a thousand years’ wages. It is my cue to tend to His business as well as I can until He is ready to cancel the remainder of the service which I owe.
"I would not trade places with anyone in the world, not because I am well pleased with myself but because I am trying to do the job that has been chosen for me by God. I would rather offer one Mass or live one day the life of a Religious than own all the treasures of the world."
Father Bede died in 1991.