The gradual growth of the community of St. Anselm’s led to the construction of a church and first monastery building in 1930 on a hill above South Dakota Avenue at 14th Street. The work of the monks continued to be that of scholarship, writing and research, and university teaching, with pastoral service to neighboring religious communities and to lay people. In 1942 the decision was made to add the traditional work of English Benedictine monasteries by opening a secondary day school for boys, which became the Priory School. As the monastery continued to expand in numbers and apostolate it was made a conventual (or independent) priory of the English Congregation. In 1961 the priory was elevated to the rank of abbey by decree of Pope John XXIII. Father Alban Boultwood, superior since 1946, was elected as first abbot of St. Anselm’s. Our fourth abbot, Father Aidan Shea, completed his tenure in 2006. Following an interim period under Father Simon McGurk as prior administrator, Father James Wiseman was elected by the community as its fifth abbot in June 2011., Abbot of St. Anselm’s Abbey Near the north-east boundary of the District of Columbia, twelve minutes by Metro from Union Station and twenty minutes from the Capitol, is a thriving Benedictine monastery., We, the monks of St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington, DC, have answered God’s call to the following of Jesus Christ within the tradition of Benedictine monasticism..