The Saint Anselm College pub played host to an event highlighting the Benedictine Heritage and the order’s history of brewing beer. “Beer and Benedictines” took place on Thursday, March 23.  Abbot Matthew Leavy, O.S.B., and Professor Kevin Staley, Ph.D., gave samples of different beers from a local brewery to the attendees of the event.

Abbot Matthew opened the event by welcoming the large crowd to the pub.  As he stated in an interview with the Crier, “We were happy to see the large crowd attend this event.”

Abbot Matthew spoke about the Jesuits and their beer brewing history. He gave the example of how exactly beer came over to the United States. According to Abbot Matthew, beer was brought to the United States by monks from Germany. These monks wanted the beer for themselves and in order to sell beer for profit.  This was apparently controversial because of the fact that an Irish Bishop disagreed with a monastery brewing beer commercially.

When asked how this event fit in to Benedictine Heritage week, Abbot Matthew responded, “Well, if you look around you will see the pub is swarming with people; students, faculty, and staff; which means that there is an attraction to this. Granted this is not the most important thing to Benedictine heritage, but it’s obviously something that sparks interest and enthusiasm and the kind of fraternity and conversation and the personal relationships that mark the true Benedictine Heritage.”