If St. Francis were in Cincinnati today, he would probably be working with the poor in Over-the-Rhine. But he would almost certainly take occasional refuge at “Mt. Airy” for times of prayer and spiritual rejuvenation.

“Mt. Airy” is the familiar name for the National Shrine of St. Anthony and Friary sitting on a hill above Cincinnati. The shrine had its start in the late 1880s, when Joseph and Elizabeth Nurre bought what was then a country estate for $18,000 and gave it to the Franciscan friars. The Nurres also promised to build a monastery, a home for infirm friars and a refuge for friars wanting to make a spiritual retreat.

The cornerstone was laid and blessed in August, 1888. The friars moved into the original house two months later, and a little more than a year later, on Thanksgiving Day 1889, Archbishop Henry Elder of Cincinnati consecrated the chapel. The building’s north wing was to house the novices, and the south the professed friars. The architect was Brother Adrian Weber, O.F.M., of the Sacred Heart Province.

Father Jerome Kilgenstein, Provincial Minister at the time, obtained furnishings for the chapel from France, Belgium, Bavaria, Holland and the Austrian province of Tyrol, the home of the early friars of the Cincinnati province. Originally the chapel had eight side altars. Over the high altar were two large paintings depicting scenes from the life of St. Anthony. The paintings were covered over when the chapel was redecorated in 1978.

A group of novices, who had been invested with the Franciscan habit at Holy Family Friary in Oldenburg, Indiana, came to Mt. Airy in the first week of 1890. The first investitures at Mt. Airy took place August 15, 1890—on the feast of the Assumption, which became a traditional date for many years.

Nearly a thousand young men entered the novitiate at Mt. Airy between 1890 and 1967, to spend one year laying the foundation for their lives as Franciscans. Not all ended up professing vows in the order: one purpose of the novitiate is to discern God’s call. At the end of the novitiate, the novice makes temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, to last until final, solemn profession.

Novitiate is a reflective, contemplative time. The image of the “cave” is often used to describe part of the novitiate experience. Just as Francis went to the caves around Assisi to pray and face his vocation, so the novice enters the “cave” to discover himself and God more deeply.

Over the years the novitiate changed with the Church and the world. At one time novices did not leave the grounds except in case of necessity. However, as times changed novices began to go out for provincial gatherings and for apostolic and educational experiences. At one time, novices also received new names; later, that policy changed to allow them to keep their original names—a recognition of the importance of the Sacrament of Baptism.

Today, the Friary is no longer a novitiate and serves now as the candidate house. Novices live at an inter-provincial novitiate in Cedar Lake, Indiana.

Mt. Airy holds a special place in the hearts of friars and friends. Vocation decisions made by novices have affected the course of the Cincinnati province. For the friends of St. Anthony, for retreatants, for the sick friars and for visitors, it has been a place of peace, of hope, of communion with nature and with God.

This “holy hill” has been an inspiration and channel of God’s grace for over a century now. May it be the same for another century and beyond.