Father Aelred Wall, OSB, was our founder Charles Wall
Barney (Aelred Wall) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, May 20, 1917. He attended Portsmouth Priory School, then Princeton University. After graduating from the University of St. Louis in 1940 returned to Portsmouth as a teacher.
In the spring of 1941, he joined the Benedictine community of Portsmouth Priory. He made his first profession votes on January 25, 1943, and was given the name "Aelred." On June 15, 1946, was ordained priest. Father Aelred
served as director of Portsmouth Priory School from 1951 to 1957. He was much loved and respected in that position. In 1960, he went to another Benedictine monastery, Mount Salvador, near Elmira, New York.
In 1964, he and two other monks of Mount Saviour Monastery of Christ founded in the desert. Placido parents and Basil, the other two founders, finally returned to Monte Salvador and were replaced by others. New Mexico arrived on the feast of San Juan Bautista on June 24, so he chose that as the patron saint of the monastery.
Father Aelred was looking for a more contemplative life, away from all the administrative tasks of his position as director. He wanted a simple, more primitive life, like that of St. Benedict in his cave at Subiaco. The new foundation would not only be for religious, but it would be for people of all faiths and even no faith.
being prior in 1972, resigns from the Priory after experiencing profound loneliness called radical, and it moved near San Miguel de Allende in Mexico the land that today is the Monastery of Our Lady of Solitude.
Father Aelred became a hermit and died November 13, 1984. Father Aelred is buried in the monastery.
To continue his work, some monks from the Monastery of Christ in the Desert (first monastery founded by Father Aelred) will live to the Monastery of Our Lady of Solitude in 1984 and since then this community has been the result of inner life, sharing Benedictine spirituality with anyone who calls the doors of the monastery.
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