About Saint Leo Abbey

Abbot Francis Sadlier, wasted no time embracing this mission. On November 22, 1932 at the scheduled meeting of the eleven chapter members of the Abbey, he introduced the resolution to begin, as soon as practicable, the erection of an Abbey church. At the same meeting he was forced to seek and obtain authorization to borrow $3450.00 to pay the semi-annual interest on the crushing debt left on the 1927 construction of the student dormitory, St. Edwards Hall. Both Abbey and school were suffering, as was the entire country, in the throes of the Great Depression, but the monks of the Abbey shared with their Abbot the confidence that the Lord would provide, if it be his will. Already Abbot Francis was in contact with an underemployed architect of Tampa, Frank Parziale, who was willing to work in his spare time on a set of plans for the proposed church, to be paid for as the Abbot would obtain earmarked funds for the project. As U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt was swept into office in November, 1933, on the platform of drawing a suffering nation out of its economic ills a glimmer of hope seemed to appear on the horizon for the dream of an Abbey Church. In early spring the Works Progress Administration was born and a San Antonio resident, Oliver Hoehn, an accomplished stone mason and builder from Ohio was employed by the WPA to train stone masons and brick layers for potential employment. Their first accomplishment was the still attractive native stone San Antonio Hall.