From the Archives

The impact on a student by a concerned, kind, challenging and demanding educator cannot be overstated; such was the case with the dynamic Father Augustine Horn, O.S.B. At his core, the love of Christ and his church animated his very being and left a legacy of decency and goodness.

Augustine Horn came into this world on Nov. 28, 1914, in Cresco, Iowa. After his early education in Iowa, he came to Saint Gregory in 1938 as a student and felt called to the religious life. He made his initial profession on July 11, 1939. 

After attending Saint John in Collegeville, Minn., he made his final profession in 1942 and began teaching in the high school in 1943. The year 1945 saw the ordination to the priesthood of Father Augustine Horn on March 17. Further studies in Latin included a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and spending some time at the Catholic University of America. 

At the University of Colorado, he studied Russian. Language intrigued him and his insatiable curiosity aided him in becoming proficient in New Testament Greek. A former student recounts: “I was going to seminary so I thought it would be interesting and helpful to take Greek. I signed up for the course and I was the only person. To say that it was intimidating to be tutored by a man of Father Augustine’s intellect is putting it mildly. However, he put me ease and became a person that I looked forward to seeing as he had a treasure trove of stories. His genuine faith was inspiring, and his Benedictine outlook still resonates with me to this day.”

This vigorous man was slowed by a very serious car accident that left him in pain for the rest of his life. He walked with a limp and used a cane, but never complained. Father Robert Wood states: “He had yet another serious hip surgery and was confined to bedrest for several months, so the abbot gave us permission to enter the cloister and father taught us while lying flat on his back. Nothing was going to stop him from teaching.

He was the consummate teacher: articulate, witty, brilliant and he had great mastery of the blackboard to help us with conjugations and declensions and other linguistic mysteries. … He taught not only to enrich our minds but our souls and our identity as Catholics. He continues to be one of the most important and consequential people in my life.”

When he finally retired from teaching in 1992, Father Augustine continued to be active, giving tours of the abbey church and refectory and maintained a spiritual presence with the students. He was straightforward in his assessments, but as his confrere Father Martin Lugo believes that “whatever he said to you was for your betterment. He was a wonderful conversationalist and storyteller.” He was one of the last in the community to remember the early monks and was deeply proud of the Benedictine heritage in Oklahoma. Consequently, he was a pillar of that community.

Jim Abbot, former alumni director, summed up Father Augustine beautifully in the obituary that ran in the Sooner Catholic upon his death in December of 2003: “He cared about you. He loved you. And because he did, you loved him and others a little more.”