A Wondrous Cross Still Beckons the Faithful from Mount Calvary’s Ashes

Renowned Mount Calvary Retreat House faces an uncertain future, but a symbol of salvation stands tall.

Artisan Gunnar Thielst was commissioned to create a 20-foot wrought-iron cross for the newly established Mount Calvary monastery in 1949. The monastery's iconic symbol still stands resolute amid the ashes of the Tea Fire.
Artisan Gunnar Thielst was commissioned to create a 20-foot wrought-iron cross for the newly established Mount Calvary monastery in 1949. The monastery’s iconic symbol still stands resolute amid the ashes of the Tea Fire. (Colin Macfadyen / Noozhawk photo)

By Sonia Fernandez, Noozhawk Staff Writer | Published on 12.31.2008

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When the smoke cleared from the Tea Fire in November, residents who returned to find their homes destroyed had to reckon with the grim reality of their losses. Multimillion-dollar houses that represented their dreams and life’s work went up in flames.

So it was for the seven resident brothers at Mount Calvary Retreat House & Monastery, 2501 Gibraltar Road, where the combination of fierce winds and a steep vegetated mountainside made it easy for the flames to access the Episcopal monastery complex. The fire was ruthless, eating up whatever the monks could not get out, including a 17th-century gold altar from South America, a painting of Jesus Christ made in 1652, and personal effects.

“There is nothing to recover,” Brother Joseph Brown told the Episcopal News of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles shortly after the fire.

The Rev. Nicholas Radelmiller, the monastery’s prior, has estimated the losses were in the millions of dollars.

But it wasn’t just the Brothers of the Order of the Holy Cross who lost their home. For many of the faithful in the Santa Barbara community and throughout the world, Mount Calvary was a spiritual home, a place to take refuge from the bustle of the day-to-day grind, or to work out life’s problems, or to simply meditate in silence, the quiet broken only by the breeze or by the piercing cries of hawks soaring high above. When news of the monastery’s destruction spread, there was an outpouring of sympathy for the brothers and grief over the devastation.

Gunnar Thielst with his wrought-iron handiwork at Mount Calvary Retreat House in 1989.
Gunnar Thielst with his wrought-iron handiwork at Mount Calvary Retreat House in 1989. (Gredizer family photo)

But not everything is lost.

Amid the ashes and the rubble, one icon of Mount Calvary remains standing, a silent symbol of salvation and triumph: the wrought-iron cross that was erected in 1949, shortly after the monastery was established.

Looking worse for wear from the firestorm that consumed everything around it, the cross nevertheless continues to tower over the burned-out courtyard. Its bronze ornamentation is tarnished, maybe even melted, but the flames of the Tea Fire were not strong enough to undo the delicate lacework of the body of the cross. Surrounded by charred, collapsed walls and burned-out debris, the cross still commands a reverence, perhaps even more so for having survived one of the most devastating wildfires in recent history.

When artisan Gunnar Thielst in 1947 accepted the commission offered by Amy du Pont of the prominent American family, he may have already understood the importance of his work. It was only two short years after the end of World War II, which had America rationing its iron and scrapping what it could to help the war effort. Thielst, who had to give up his studio for lack of iron, was only just starting over.

The long view from Mount Calvary is still spectacular but rubble and uncertainty fill the monastery's short-term picture.
The long view from Mount Calvary is still spectacular but rubble and uncertainty fill the monastery’s short-term picture. (Colin Macfadyen / Noozhawk photo)

“What my stepfather told me was that Ms. du Pont traveled throughout Europe, going to cathedrals, looking for a design for the cross,” said Ursula Gredizer, Thielst’s stepdaughter. She describes him as a reticent, serious Dane who nevertheless had his own brand of humor.

When du Pont returned to Santa Barbara, however, it was Thielst who came up with the design that she eventually wanted for her gift to the monastery. Working with Father Karl Tiedemann, who established the monastery, he laid out plans for a more than 20-foot-tall cross, wrought from about a ton of iron. It was airy enough to let wind and light pass through it, but majestic enough to stand out against the backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains towering behind the monastery. On it would be bronze ornaments to symbolize Jesus Christ’s suffering before his crucifixion on the mountain for which the Mount Calvary monastery was named.

“My stepbrother would go to the monastery once a year and take down those ornaments to polish them,” Gredizer said.

Mount Calvary Retreat House's welcoming entrance arch stands in ruin, its murals spattered by wind-hurled embers.
Mount Calvary Retreat House’s welcoming entrance arch stands in ruin, its murals spattered by wind-hurled embers. (Colin Macfadyen / Noozhawk photo)

What Thielst could not have known was that the iron he and his team spent months painstakingly bending and flexing would eventually be able to withstand a wildfire so intense in some places that even houses constructed with stone burned to the ground.

Now, more than a month after the Tea Fire, the brothers are trying to rebuild their lives while dealing with the emotions that come with a painful loss: sorrow, confusion, maybe even some anger at those responsible for starting the blaze.

“... It is very difficult for me to process the feelings,” Brown wrote to Noozhawk after the fire. “I was one of the monks at Mount Calvary monastery. It was my home and the spiritual home of literally tens of thousands of people from around the world. Priceless works of art, books, historical treasures pertaining to the order, archives, and all of the personal possessions of the monks were lost.

“And this is the point at which being a Christian monastic reaches its very core. I have to forgive these young people, and do all that I can to help them. ... That is what Christianity is ... it is forgiveness and reaching out to those who have hurt us. If as a monk I am unable to do that, then I did not deserve to live at Mount Calvary.”

It hasn’t been an easy process, but the brothers have indicated they will be picking up the pieces and moving on. How exactly they will be moving on will be determined at the order’s annual conference in June.

High chaparral fueled the Tea Fire as it raced up the mountainside to engulf the Mount Calvary campus.
High chaparral fueled the Tea Fire as it raced up the mountainside to engulf the Mount Calvary campus. (Colin Macfadyen / Noozhawk photo)

“It’s still undecided,” said Nancy Bullock, Mount Calvary’s retreat director. The monks could try to rebuild the monastery, or they may take advantage of the clean slate and go somewhere else, do something new, she told Noozhawk.

The Right Rev. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Los Angeles diocese, has established a fund to address the Mount Calvary losses. Contributions may be mailed to Mount Calvary Retreat House & Monastery, P.O. Box 1296, Santa Barbara 93102, or to the Bishop’s Office, 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles 90026.

For now the brothers are staying at St. Mary’s Retreat House, 505 E. Los Olivos St., which is run by the Episcopal Order of Sisters of the Holy Nativity.

“The life and ministry of Mount Calvary will go on, maybe in another fashion, but it will go on,” Radelmiller told the Episcopal News. “We’re confident of that.”

Should the brothers decide to rebuild their monastery, there’s a big wrought-iron cross ready to welcome them back to the mountaintop.

— Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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» Morgan wrote on 12.31.08 @ 09:32 PM

What a delightful story to start the new year with. All of us share the grief of the loss of Mount Calvary, but the cross is a symbol of Christ’s resurrection, perhaps an important sign for the monks. Thank you, Noozhawk, you’ve already made my year! Wonderful pictures, too.

» cot wrote on 01.01.09 @ 04:49 AM

My heart goes out to the brothers, the staff, and to all who found Mt. Calvary a blessed retreat from the concerns of the day.  While the ashes have cooled and the story is no longer on the front page, the pain of loss is still strong to all who cherished this beautiful place.  Brother Joseph’s words are an inspiration to those of faith who will carry on despite the devastation.  My prayers go with them.  Thank you for keeping the story alive; the photography is excellent.

» Michelle Woodhouse wrote on 01.01.09 @ 08:07 AM

A truly inspiring story….the heart at the center of the indomitable cross still shines as a beacon of hope amid the rubble of what once was and still may be for countless pilgrims to this sacred space.  Thank you!

» Gene wrote on 01.02.09 @ 03:26 AM

Very symbolic - I hope the remaining cross gives the survivors true hope and a message of the one most important thing, beyond possessions. Nothing else will remain in the long run.

» Josh Indiana wrote on 01.02.09 @ 12:57 PM

About a year ago I made a retreat to the order’s mother house in West Park, NY. I know the brothers will make the right decision about their future; they will let God guide them through this horrible time. As monks they have already given up their personal attachment to worldly goods, only to have it replaced with a shared attachment to the beautiful things of God; now they have to give up that too, except for the wrought-iron cross that conquered the fire.

Christians are reminded that the brothers have no income now, and St. Mary’s Retreat House has twice as many mouths to feed. I wrote a check; have you?

dailyoffice.org, a prayer site in the Episcopal Church, links to this story on Saturday, Jan. 3. Good job, Noozhawk.

[Editor’s note: Thank you for the link.]

» AMS wrote on 01.02.09 @ 04:54 PM

It brings me to tears remembering meditation time spent there, the quiet, the beauty. How profound that the Cross remains as a comfort, guide & inspiration for us.
Thank you for the article & pictures….

 

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