Fr. Ignacio Gonzalez

A native of Austin, Texas and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, I came to Washington, DC in the mid-1990s to work on Capitol Hill in the office of my local representative. After completing my studies at the University of Houston, I returned to Washington to begin a career in both teaching and the foreign-exchange market.

As long as I can remember, I sensed a call to religious life, and after Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Washington in the spring of 2008, I began to seriously discern my vocation and entered St. Anselm’s Abbey in the fall of that year. On May 24, 2014, I made my solemn profession, and by Gods’ grace, I was ordained to the priesthood on May 6, 2023. A week later, on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, I graduated with a Masters of Divinity degree from The Catholic University of America here in Washington, DC

Every day I am aware of the gift that God has called me to be a monk in our nation’s capital and I am even more humbled that Our Lord has called me to share in his priesthood.

What I like most about monastic life are three things: 1) Twenty-four hour access to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, 2) the structured and balanced daily monastic horarium, and 3) being part of a unique and venerable Benedictine tradition that spans 1,500 years of Church history.

I consider it a great privilege to be included among the members of the monastic community of St. Anselm’s Abbey and am confident that Our Lord and St. Benedict are calling other men to join us in carrying out our small part in the New Evangelization.