Winzen, Damasus, Dom, O.S.B.

Dom Damasus Winzen was a Benedictine monk of Maria Laach Abbey in Germany until the rise of Hitler. He moved to the United States and first writes to Merton while at Regina Laudis Abbey in Bethlehem, Connecticut, in 1950. In 1951, he founded Mount Saviour Monastery in Elmira, New York. The monastery was founded on principles of simplicity and equality without traditional divisions between choir monks and lay brothers, all sharing in the raising of sheep. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 18.)