Background
William Innocent Wolf was born on April 13, 1843, in Schmidheim, Rhenish Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia (present-day Schmidheim, Germany). He was a son of John Wolf, a school teacher, and Gertrude (Molitor) Wolf, and had eight siblings.
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In 1854, William attended Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
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Wolf studied at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he received a Doctor of Divinity degree.
William Innocent Wolf was born on April 13, 1843, in Schmidheim, Rhenish Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia (present-day Schmidheim, Germany). He was a son of John Wolf, a school teacher, and Gertrude (Molitor) Wolf, and had eight siblings.
In 1851, William's family emigrated to Brighton, Wisconsin, where his father bought a farm and also instructed the children of the parish. Three years later, following two of his brothers, William went to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he took an academic course.
In his later years, Wolf studied at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he received a Doctor of Divinity degree.
In 1860, William decided to enter the Benedictine Order at Saint Vincent Archabbey and on July 11, 1861, he pronounced his religious vows and took Saint Innocent as his patron saint. On May 26, 1866, after his philosophical and theological studies, Wolf was ordained as a priest.
Because of his extraordinary talents, Abbot Boniface Wimmer sent William to Rome in 1867 to take a postgraduate course in the sacred sciences. He studied at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he received a Doctor of Divinity degree, and, in 1870, returned to Saint Vincent College, where he had previously studied, to teach Theology. During the next years, William also held the office of the master of novices, treasurer of the abbey and finally prior of the monastery.
After traveling to the West, Father Innocent, on September 29, 1876, was elected first Abbot of St. Benedict, Atchison, Kansas, a monastery (present-day St. Benedict's Abbey), which had been founded from Saint Vincent Archabbey in 1857. At that time, the monastery had only eleven priests, who conducted a college of fifty-three students and administered a parish with several missions. The institution was heavily in debt, especially on account of the large church, which had been built there. Abbot Innocent at once took a very active part in reducing the financial burden and shared in all the work of his subjects, performing manual labor in the fields, teaching in the classroom and serving on the altar and in the pulpit as a churchman. Gradually, a group of stately buildings arose around the large church and indicated in some measure the interior growth of the institution.
Later, in 1910, even these became inadequate to the needs of the community and college, and it was decided to build an entirely new group of buildings on a neighboring hill, overlooking the Missouri Valley. In 1918, the college was accredited by the Catholic Educational Association, and the following year, it became affiliated with the University of Kansas. In 1919, a preparatory department, Maur Hill Preparatory School (present-day Maur Hill-Mount Academy), was established.
After carrying the burden of his office for forty-four years, in 1921, the Abbot was granted a coadjutor and gradually retired from the government of the monastery. He died a year later. By that time, St. Benedict Abbey had grown to ninety-seven members, its college and seminary were equal to the best in the Middle West and its missionary activities extended to seventeen parishes in three states.
During all his life, Abbot Innocent continued his favorite studies in the liturgy of the church. He often assisted writers on this subject and became the chief contributor to the Ceremoniale Monasticum, which was published by the abbey student press in 1907.
At first sight, Wolf seemed severe and taciturn. He knew this only too well and referred to himself at times as "an innocent wolf". He was always kind toward those, who were in difficulties or in need, and he became a counselor for many priests and prelates in the Middle West.
Physical Characteristics: Abbot Innocent was of small stature, with a long, flowing reddish beard.