About 250 people visited the Benedictine Abbey of Clear Creek in Cherokee County last week during the abbey’s annual workday.

Visitors from around the region spend the day working on the property which covers some 1,000 wooded acres north of Hulbert.

This year, the workday was not as well attended as in years past, when upwards of 400 have participated, monks said.

 There is some painting and repairing of fences, but most of the work consists of hauling and burning brush. The workday is the first Saturday in March, as it is usually a mild time of winter and not yet tick season.

The day begins around 7:30 to 8 a.m. Stan Doyle originally organized the workday years ago. Doyle’s family owned the land prior to selling it to the monks in 1999.

The monks came to Oklahoma from an abbey in France in 1999. The Doyles live in Tulsa and had the land as a weekend retreat. The Abbey gets its name from the creek that runs through the property.

At noon, work stops and everyone gathers at the site of the old monastery, which consists of a large log house once used by the Doyle family.

The monks moved into a new monastery atop a hill on the property in January of 2008.

Lunch last week consisted of  barbecue, beans, cheese potatoes, oranges, coffee, tea or water. In past years, a large pig was roasted.

Abbot Philip Anderson O.S.B. (Order of Saint Benedict) blesses the meal.

While the workday is always during the Lenten season (40 days prior to Easter, remembering Christ’s 40 days in the desert) Fridays are non-meat during Lent. Catholics may eat meat on Saturdays.

Christopher Hilger from Inola is a freshman at Cascia Hall in Tulsa.  He and his brother have attended workdays over the years. Hilger said he had been coming to workday since he was 5 or 6 years old.

Saint Therese parish in Collinsville had about 18 at this workday.

Saint Joseph parish in Muskogee had a group as well.

Chris Sloan of Tulsa, who has been coming to workday for the past six years, was there with his son who attends Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa.

Sloan said of Brother Joseph Marie who is in charge of workday activities: “He’s an awesome guy to work with, he’s got a dry sense of humor.  Whatever you need he’ll get it for you so you can get the job done.”

Charles Gentry, a retired Christmas tree farmer, came to workday from Fort Scott, Kansas. He said that he was there working on the property before the monks arrived in the summer of 1999.  Sitting with Gentry was Steve Davis of Pittsburg, Kansas who said he had been there seven or eight times before.  

Last year there was a group from the University of Dallas. While the majority of participants are Catholic anyone who wants to participate may.

Every year there are some paramedics on hand just in case someone gets injured.  Steve Brown is a pilot with Tulsa Life Flight part of Saint Francis and Saint John’s health systems.  This was his third time at the workday and the first time he had the chance to get something to eat. Brown’s helicopter is based at the heliport at MidAmerica Industrial park.

The workday concluded at 6 p.m. with Vespers in the abbey. Vespers are evening prayers used in the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches. Some Protestant dominations say Vespers which are prayers taken from The Psalms. The monks at Clear Creek Abbey are Roman Catholic and sing the Psalms in Latin.

Brother Joseph Marie O.S.B. said that he figured it would take one monk 137 years to do all the work of clearing and burning brush on the property that many can do in all these workdays over the years. “The Abbot in France used to say, ‘Do what you can, the Lord will do the rest. And of the two we’ll see whose done the best.’ In other words, don’t worry.”