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February 20, 2025
What started as an enterprise to ‘pay the bills’ has opened the abbey to the surrounding community in often surprising and enriching ways.
The shelves at The Monks’ Marketplace at St. Gregory’s Abbey in Shawnee, are lined with tasty cookies, rich jams and thoughtful books and gifts. And with each visit, customers receive an endless portion of God’s love that flows from the monks there, and even the grounds on which the abbey stands.
Harvest of small miracles
On land that belongs to St. Gregory’s, the monks there raise cattle, tend bees and grow plants and vegetables. The market focuses primarily on beef and honey sales along with other items that are produced by religious orders across the country.
But beyond keeping track of sales and tending livestock in the pasture and produce in the greenhouse, the market also has been the setting for a harvest of small miracles.
“The most beautiful moments in the store are not, ‘Oh, we’ve sold this much honey.’ It’s when people come in, and especially people who have been wounded in life. They may not darken the door of a parish because they may not feel comfortable. But they want their honey,” said Father Peter Shults, O.S.B., who manages The Monks’ Marketplace.
“So, they come here to buy their honey and sometimes they’ll see a person sitting in a habit and it’s a blessing if we can be an instrument of grace. There have been a lot of times where I’ll close the store and … we’ll have a conversation about what God is doing or how is God working in their lives. And there have been several times where we’ve gone … in front of the tabernacle to pray.
“There have been quite a few of those instances. They’re very touching and very special.”
Steady growth
As word spreads about The Monks’ Marketplace, which opened in 2019, production and sales continue to inch up.
“I grew up with cattle and farming and I learned beekeeping in the monastery, which is really the bigger of our two enterprises,” said Father Simeon Spitz, O.S.B., who oversees beef and honey production. “At one point we had 20 hives and that was the most we thought we would ever have. Now we run closer to 300.”
Beef production continues to grow as well.
“The first year was seven cows. And then we did something like 17 and then 20. And then it was 40. So now we’re looking at something like 60 head for this next season. We have a backlog of requests. The direct market beef is increasingly a popular option,” Father Simeon said.
In addition to honey and beef, Brother George Hubl, O.S.B. produces handmade soaps and other monks in the abbey make rosaries and sometimes pieces that are crafted from wood. Plants from the greenhouse also may be purchased.
Even Father Simeon’s father pitches in to help.
“My dad helps us as the farm manager on the cattle side. He’s a partner in that,” he said. “It is working out well, he knows cattle better than I do by far, so he’s the brains of the operation.”
Benedictine values
In addition to God’s work among patrons of the market, the monks also infuse their Benedictine values into their work and production methods.
“A tremendous part of our life is contemplation,” Father Simeon said. “The monks’ way of praying is to keep your hands busy, but your heart and mind to God. We look for kinds of work that allow us to do that. So, the cows and the bees, those things are the kind of work that let the heart and mind go to God.
“If I’m alone, I can work bees in complete silence. I can go up, smoke the bees. I have to be gentle and slow, which allows me to be prayerful. I have to drive from place to place, but driving through the countryside in nature also lends itself to prayer. If I listen to radio at all, its classical to accompany my thought and prayer.”
Stewardship of nature is included in the Benedictine Order’s primary directives. To that end, Father Simeon applies regenerative ranching techniques to maintain balance and natural growth on the land that they own.
“We’re looking at practices that are more natural, because we don’t want to use a bunch of chemicals that would kill all the flowers and things that the bees eat,” Father Simeon said. “So, we look more at what can we plant that’s healthy, that will help the soil be regenerative, rather than what can we kill and sterilize.
“There are some legumes that we are in the process of integrating into our pasture that will make the pasture naturally healthy, using rotational grazing so the cows come through and eat it off and then it grows back. Doing it that way we don’t have to add fertilizers. Everything is in a self-contained system like it’s supposed to be.”
It also helps the bees by rotating the cattle between pastures, he said.
“If you let the cattle just stand, they will tromp and eat and nothing would really grow for the bees. But because we pass them through, the bees are able to go in and pollinate those flowers before and after (the cattle are in that particular place). And because the bees are pollinating, the plants are more productive. So, the cows help the bees and the bees help the cows,” he said.
A pilgrimage of hope
As for the future, Father Peter and Father Simeon said they are excited to see what that will bring.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of St. Gregory’s Abbey, which coincides with Pope Francis’ designation of 2025 as the Year of Hope. Catholics are called this year to “fan the flames of hope” through reconciliation, pilgrimages, missions and other events.
“We’ve noticed an increase in foot traffic since the Year of Hope began. Since we’re a pilgrimage site for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City there’s been an increase in traffic for pilgrims of hope. People are coming in from outside the community. Normally this time of year, you wouldn’t expect that,” said Father Peter, who lends his accounting degree from the University of Oklahoma and business experience earned in the military to running operations inside the market.
However, this January, The Monks’ Marketplace has seen a 50% increase in profits over 2024, he said.
In addition to current offerings, the monks are looking to produce candles from the beeswax they collect and ramp up vegetable sales in the greenhouse.
More broadly, the abbey is working to turn the former university campus into a retreat center.
“That has been a big focus. We already have several bookings into 2026. I did not anticipate as much interest as we’ve seen,” said Father Peter. “We continue to grow. We continue to seek God. We continue to do what Benedictines have always done for the last 1,500 years – pray and go to work.”
The “Ora et Labora” – Latin for “Pray and work” – factors into what’s taking place.
“The ‘Labora’ takes different forms,” Father Peter said. “For some, it may be farming. For me, it may be managing the store or maybe doing healthcare since I was trained as a medic in the Army.”
But it’s the labor of love and the bounty they find there that sustains them.
“Some of our neighbors at Oklahoma Baptist University are regular patrons,” Father Peter said. “It made me smile the other day. They called us ‘their monks.’ Even though they’re not Catholic, they very much like the fact that this charism exists in their vicinity.
“A lot of people are kind of shocked that we’re just regular guys. I think that helps people relax when they realize these guys are not just sitting in a choir stall all day long. I think the store gives people another avenue to approach. Whether it pays the bills or not, as long as it gives people an avenue to approach grace, that’s what I’m interested in.”
Father Simeon agrees.
“We get to do some ecumenical dialogue just talking to people who come in, and they say, ‘Wow! You guys aren’t so strange. You seem happy. I thought you’d be miserable,” he said. “I regularly meet people on our little road walking back and forth. Once I had a lady stop me and say, ‘Hey, I come by and buy your honey and your beef and I just wanted to let you know that I’m Pentecostal, but God is here. I come here to pray because, whatever you guys are doing, you have him here and this is where I find it.’ And she just walks by our church and prays near us while we do our thing. Several people have had that encounter.
“People love the honey. Mostly locals. It’s people who would never darken the door of the monastery, otherwise. But for raw, local honey, we’re the only beekeepers in town. And that leads to some wonderful conversations. And you catch more flies with honey, don’t you? That’s kind of the idea.”
Melissa Mercer Berryman is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
Fr. Simeon Spitz, O.S.B. worked outside and fed the cattle. Photos Theresa Bragg/St. Gregory’s Abbey.
Br. George Hubl, O.S.B. prepared his handmade soap for sale.
Fr. Charles Buckley. O.S.B., arranged the Mission Monks honey display in The Monks’ Marketplace.
