Edwin B. McDermott Photographs

Postcards

Vincent Andrews Documentaries

After the monastery burned down in 1950, many groups and individuals stepped in to raise money for the monks to rebuild and relocate to their current monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts. One of these individuals was Vincent Andrews, a graduate of RISD, owner and founder of N.U. Art Printers in South Attleboro, Massachusetts, and amateur filmmaker and documentarian ("Vincent Andrews", 1971).

According to an article published by The Anchor, the diocesan newspaper of Fall River, Massachusetts, Andrews was a passionate filmmaker, who was primarily interested in "filming scenes of the Trappist abbey at Spencer, Mass..." ("Color Film", 1958), though he first started filming at Our Lady of the Valley sometime in 1949. When the monastery burned down, the abbot at the time, Rt. Rev. Dom M. Edmund Futterer, personally asked Andrews "if any of his pictures could be compiled into a film which would be of value in explaining the work of the Cistercians..." ("Color Film", 1958). He agreed, and followed the Valley community to Our Lady of Refuge (the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in Glocester), and to Spencer, where he filmed the construction of the new monastery and scenes of daily life. He even added his own background music to the film that was "from his own private record collection" ("Color Film", 1958). 

The result was a film titled Pax Intrantibus, which means "Peace to Those who Enter", a phrase that was once carved into the stone on the front of the Porter's Lodge. Andrews and his wife Ida "made hundreds of appearances with the film in their own diocese and in those of nearby Providence and Worcester" ("Color Film", 1958). They also travelled across New England and Canada to show the film to various parishes and social clubs, raising money for the order.

After encountering many mentions of Vincent Andrews and his film in various periodicals, I was left wondering what ended up happening to it. If possible, I really wanted to see it, as I have not come across a lot of pictures of daily life in the monastery, let alone films. (This was by design, as the rules of the order "divorce its members from the outside world" ("A Rare Picture", 1936)). I decided to reach out to Spencer Abbey to see if they knew anything about it, and I was ecstatic to learn that not only had they heard of it, they actually had it digitized! 

Unfortunately, not much of the film shows scenes from Our Lady of the Valley, compared to shots of Our Lady of Refuge and Spencer Abbey. However, the footage shown presents views of the monastery and daily life that I have never seen before, including close ups of the exterior of the church and other buildings that were destroyed in the fire, an orchard, a garden, the graveyard (that still exists on the grounds today), and monks with livestock. He also shows footage of the night of the fire, of the still smoking and smoldering ruins of the church's interior, and clean up and salvaging efforts. One of the most exciting things pictured is a Saint Bernard dog doing tricks to the delight of a few children who were watching nearby. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that the dog, Bruno, is Father Tarcisius Quirk's, who was the novice master at Our Lady of the Valley around this time (Bertonière, 2005). 

I have included the full documentary below, along with another documentary of his called "A Routine in the Life of a Trappist" (1957). I hope in the future the library will be able to put on a screening. It would be exciting for people to see it again after 60 years!