Brother Benet Tvedten

A Vigil Service will be held at 7:00 p.m. MDT on Monday, March 23 at Assumption Abbey. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Abbey at 10:30 a.m. MDT on Tuesday, March 24, followed by burial in the Abbey cemetery.

Our beloved confrère Brother Benet Tvedten passed to his eternal reward, attended by his brothers, on the evening of March 17, 2026, at the Richardton Health Center in Richardton, ND. Brother Benet was 89.

Denis Tvedten was born in St. John's Hospital, Fargo, on November 22, 1936, to Carl Olaf Tvedten (+1973) and Margaret Rose O'Neill Tvedten (+1986) of Casselton, ND. He joined two brothers who were already in high school. Denis was educated at public schools in Casselton.

An interest in monasticism was piqued in high school when he read Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain. College studies took him to the Benedictine St. John's University, then to Moorhead State College, and then back to St. John's where he graduated in 1957 with a B.A. in English. While at St. John's, he travelled with a friend to the newly founded monastic community of Blue Cloud in Marvin, SD. So taken with that experience, he entered community life there in 1958.

On his first day, he was assigned to wash windows in the newly-built guest wing. Having seen the guest master, Brother Simeon, wash windows by crawling outside to the ledge, Denis attempted to do the same and fell ten feet. Result: he broke four bones in his left foot. Back from the hospital with a cast, he was given work in the Appeals Office. It was presumed he would not injure himself addressing envelopes and recording donations.

As a novice he was given the name Benet. On February 10, 1960, he professed vows and for the next fifty years he lived monastic life at Blue Cloud Abbey serving at various times as prior, subprior, junior master, novice master, vocation director, oblate director, editor of The Blue Cloud Quarterly, and mail carrier to and from Marvin, SD.

Besides producing The Blue Cloud Quarterly for which Benet did most of the writing, he edited a Native American poetry publication which proved so successful that in 2000 he received an award from The Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers at their annual gathering in Tahlequah, OK. There, he met poets and writers he had published. In the meanwhile, he had been writing his own material. In 1985 he received the yearly fiction prize from New Rivers Press of St. Paul, MN, for the novella All Manner of Monks. He continued publishing short stories and books, among them a commentary on the Holy Rule for oblates, and a personal memoir of monastic life, and How To Be A Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job, which is still in print.

With experience as Blue Cloud's oblate director for many years, in 1997 Benet was elected first director of the newly organized North American Association of Benedictine Oblate Directors.

On August 5, 2012, Blue Cloud Abbey was closed. The abbey had only twelve monks, and only two under the age of seventy. Brother Benet chose to move to Assumption Abbey, "coming back to my beloved North Dakota" as he often said. His vows were transferred to Assumption Abbey on July 26, 2013. By then he had already been appointed manager of the Abbey Gift Shop, and editor of the in-house Abbey News. He also became the friendly voice on the phone and greeter in the Visitors Center during morning hours.

When Alzheimer's meant that he needed greater care, he moved into the Richardton Health Center in February, 2024. Monks visited him regularly. He died on March 17, the feast of St. Patrick, fortified by the sacraments of the Church and the prayers of his brothers. He was preceded in death by his parents and his two brothers, Kenneth and Lee.

A heartfelt "Thank You" to the staff of the Richardton Health Center, and to the Hospice team for all of the good care provided to Br. Benet.