We are proud of Benedictine's history and continue to feel the persistence, vision and values of the handful of monks who arrived in the middle of a cornfield.

Three years ago, when the cornerstone was removed from Benedictine Hall and placed in an outside column of Kindlon Hall, it was 100 years to the day since the original cornerstone was inserted in the brick and mortar of Benedictine Hall. The time capsule did not withstand the rigors of time, and everything in it disintegrated. But an account tells us that it held a photograph of Abbot Nepomuk Jaeger, O.S.B., founder and first abbot of St. Procopius; and copies of the Czech newspapers Narod and Katolik, printed by the monks and published for Czech and Slovak immigrants in Chicago. There was a script headed with I.O.G.D., which is Latin for St. Benedict's motto: "That in All Things God May Be Glorified." Before the first shovel of dirt was scooped from the earth, Abbot Jaeger knelt and wrote the motto in the dust. Those words continue to be the banner cry of this University.

The script tucked into that original time capsule was an historical account that began in the same format as the Christmas Gospel - "In the year six thousand sixty-five since the creation of the world, one thousand nine hundred since the nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, one thousand and six since the conversion of the Bohemians to Christ the Lord; five hundred and fifty-two years since the foundation of the University of Prague; one hundred and twenty-four since the beginning of the Republic of the United States of North America; thirteen since the establishment of St. Procopius Monastery as canonical priory, and again thirteen years since the beginning of St. Procopius College; six years since the elevation of St. Procopius Priory to the dignity of an Abbey; while the bark of Peter is happily governed by the Supreme Pontiff, Leo XIII; while Patrick Augustine Feehan is Archbishop of Chicago; and Hildebrand de Hemptine is Abbot Primate of the entire order of St. Benedict; John Nepomuk Jaeger is the Abbot of St. Procopius Abbey; William McKinley is president of the republic; and as the whole Catholic world is rejoicing in the year of the great jubilee:

This cornerstone was placed on July 2, AD, 1900, on the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the Most Reverend and Honorable Leo Haid, D.D., O.S.B., apostolic vicar of North Carolina, in the presence of innumerable faithful, both lay and clergy, who prayed for success of what was begun here. May the great and best God bless this beginning."

A new cornerstone for the year 2000 was placed in one of the outside Kindlon Hall columns. Among the items it contains: Baccalaureate and Commencement programs; a Benedictine football helmet; baseball cap and basketball jersey; a copy of my inaugural address; undergraduate and graduate catalogs; copies of the school paper The Candor; a collection of photos commemorating many occasions; Great Issues-Great Ideas programs; Voices magazines; Founders' Walk information and a Benedictine University Campus Services T-shirt.

Also set into a Kindlon column is a rough, reddish "sazava" stone, sent to the first monks from the ruins of St. Procopius Monastery (Sazava) in the present day Czech Republic. As Benedictine Hall was built, that stone was set into the outside wall below the second floor windows. It has two dates on it - 1785 - the year that the Abbey was suppressed in Czechoslovakia, and - 1885 - the year St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle was founded. Place your hands on those Kindlon columns and recall many pieces of Benedictine history. It is impressive. The original time capsule - disintegrated as it is - is on display for you to enjoy and to remember.