Description
The Telly Award-winning documentary about the Saint Vincent Fire of 1963!
When Boniface Wimmer arrived near present-day Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1846 to establish a Benedictine monastery–the first in North America—he brought 18 followers with him. Modeling their work after the self-sufficient monasteries in Wimmer’s native Bavaria, the monks began farming and herding livestock. They worked the soil to provide grains, fruits and vegetables for themselves and their students. And they expanded by building, with wood, bricks and stone.
Living a life of prayer and work, the Benedictines had been praying, working, evangelizing and teaching every day for 117 yeares. Until a day unlike any other in the history of Saint Vincent. On January 28, 1963, just before the start of the spring semester, fire broke out in a biology laboratory, a fire that devastated the campus. Five buildings were devastated by the flames and two others severely damaged, taking out the heart of campus, which included a preparatory school, a college and a seminary. The monks were devastated by what seemed to be an apocalyptic destruction of their monastery and schools. But even as the flames burned, the monks’ daily routine of prayer continued, and they resiliently began planning for the rebirth of a campus.
Using original footage, archival photos and narrative accounts by those who lived through the day of “fire and ice,” Fire and Ice traces the story of the fire and the subsequent rebuilding of the Saint Vincent Campus, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the blaze.
A book on the Saint Vincent Fire is a good companion for the Saint Vincent Fire DVD.
In May 2013, Fire and Ice was awarded a Bronze Telly Award in the history and biography category of the 34th annual Telly Awards, a national competition that honors excellence in film and video productions.
Contributors include Jerome Oetgen, Jordan Hainsey, Warren Murrman and Kim Metzgar.
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