The $30 million resurrection of St. Joseph Abbey

(AP) — At about 7 p.m., the flood-swollen Bogue Falaya River rose to historic levels near St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College north of Covington, spreading more than two feet of water across the entire 1,200-acre campus.

[...] with $5.3 million in donations already received, Brown said, the hardship of the past year has given way to a sense of renewal and a deepening of his faith in the goodness of ordinary people.

[...] many were just small amounts raised by school groups and other organizations that put on bake sales and other fundraisers to help the cause.

Seminary classes resumed on campus not long after the flood, with students and resident monks moving their classes and living quarters to the upper floors of buildings.

Despite the hardship, students and faculty say they have tried to make the best of the situation.

A bee-keeping operation that produces honey and St. Joseph's Woodworks, which makes and sells caskets to the public to raise money for the abbey, are back in full swing.

About 30 construction workers spend their days working on two of the main campus buildings, Borromeo Hall and Vianney Hall, a dormitory that had been completely renovated and reopened to students in January 2013.

The abbey has already borrowed money and used some of its savings and the donations to jump-start restoration.

While the blow certainly sent the abbey reeling, Brown said he hopes it will help upgrade the campus for the increasing number of young men who are "hearing the call" to become seminarians.

In 1907, less than a decade after Benedictine monks established the abbey, the monastery and seminary were reduced to rubble by a fire.