On March 28, 1965, Abbot Walter Coggin O.S.B. consecrated the newly renovated Belmont Abbey Cathedral. To the Abbot, the need for renovation was clear, due to the increasingly obvious decay and dilapidation of the church. According to a 1964 report, “The walls were dingy; the floor was close to collapsing; the beauty that was once the Cathedral was faded.” It was thus incumbent upon Abbot Walter to rectify the situation. Jarring though it was, the renovation simplified the original design.  The ceiling became cedar, while the plaster on the walls was replaced with plain brick. The floor was laid with undyed flagstone and the altars and ambos were cut of Georgia marble.  Yet the painted windows, Stations of the Cross and the venerated statue of Maryhelp all remained. To the exterior of the building, however, the narthex was added and the granite arch surmounting the original doors was moved to this new location. Additionally, before the entrance, an expansive piazza was created. Facing west on the piazza in front of the church, the Italian-made statue of Saint Benedict was placed, obtained and blessed by Leo Haid in 1924. As has been noted, the “evocative simplicity was soon understood as an authentic expression of the monastic values that underscored the Cathedral’s use” (Baumstein 14). As we celebrate our Solemnity today, let us reflect on the words of our late great Abbey historian, Father Pascal Baumstein. In his “A Carolina Basilica” pamphlet, he writes: “The beauty and history of the Abbey Basilica of Maryhelp testify today to the reality that resided in the dream of her Benedictine founders. More importantly, though, to her many worshippers through the years—the succession of monks who have sought God there, the sequence of Abbeymen (and in more recent times, of Abbeywomen) who have studied in her...