Inspired by the
Writings of John Paul II, Peter Maurin, and St. Anthony Marie Claret Loome
Theological Bookstore relocates to Claret Farm in Stillwater
As Peter Maurin, one of the
founders, along with Dorothy Day, of the Catholic Worker movement, wrote it is
time “to blow the dynamite of the church”. The dynamite to which Maruin
referred was the Catholic Church’s counter-cultural social teaching.
After 10 years of studying the writings of John Paull II on work and the new
evangelization, Peter Maurin on the restoration of society, and St. Anthony
Marie Claret on sustainable family farm life, Christopher Hagen, proprietor of
Loome Theological Booksellers of Stillwater, MN, decided to blow the dynamite
of the church by relocating the bookstore to a nearby family farm.
In August of 2012 he moved his family to the farm which they christened Claret
Farm, and then soon commenced moving the largest theological bookstore in the
world, consisting of nearly 100,000 books. From September through December
the move continued while his family began the adventure of farm life.
This Spring, Hagen is putting the finishing touches on the new Loome
Theological Booksellers farm location just in time for the Grand Opening
Celebration on Friday and Saturday April 26 and 27.
Christopher and his wife,
Christelle, dreamed for 15 years of running a bookstore together and living on
a farm with their 5 children. Along the way, primarily under the
influence of the Stillwater Catholic Worker community, they encountered and studied
the writings of John Paul II and Peter Maurin. John Paull II taught them
that “work is for family” and therefore the parents’ careers should serve the
family and conform to the family’s needs, not the other way around.
Maurin often wrote in pithy energizing phrases like “eat what you raise, and
raise what you eat”. Maurin also advocated the "agronomic
university", a place where he envisioned that workers could become
scholars and scholars could become workers. Maurin taught that the house
of hospitality for the poor was necessary, but should be considered as Phase
One in a broader plan to renew a dying society. For Maurin, who had grown
up in an agricultural region in France, the house of hospitality necessarily
must be followed by a Phase Two, during which individuals and families would
learn to provide for themselves, instead of relying on the generosity of others
or being dependent on the government. This process of learning and
training was to be carried out in the “agronomic university”.
While preparing a lesson for her
homeschooled children, Christelle studied St. Anthony Marie Claret, a
nineteenth-century priest, apostle and missionary, who was archbishop of
Santiago, Cuba. While archbishop, Claret wrote a book on farming,
originally published in Spanish, that encouraged families to work small farms
and own small businesses, because he believed that this provided stability for
families and for society. He encouraged small family farmers to grow a
diversity of crops, so that they would be less dependent on the large sugar
farms of the day. He even tried to open a school much like Maurin’s
vision of an “agronomic university”!
Challenged and set on fire by
these ideas, in the winter of 2012 Christopher and Christelle decided to do
what they could to fulfill John Paul II’s call for the new evangelization by
aiming for something they’d never heard of before: a bookstore combined
with a family farm. However, they had little hope of finding a location
for this farm/bookstore idea to put down roots. “Thanks be to God,”
Christopher says “my wife, Christelle, loves to comb craigslist for
houses! We had set a deadline of June 30th, 2012 for finding a
farm. On June 30th my wife spotted a craigslist ad for the
farm we now live on.” The farm location was better than the Hagens
thought possible. Not only did it have a beautiful restored farm house,
but it also had a shed large enough to hold all Loome Theological Bookseller’s
books with an already finished portion as ideal retail bookstore space.
Also on the property was a separate building suitable for hosting speaking
events and reading groups, a long term desire for the bookstore and classroom
space for an “agronomic university”. To top it off there was enough field
acreage to begin their neophyte adventures in family farming.
Hagen finished moving Loome
Theological Booksellers the Friday before Christmas. During the winter
the bookstore has continued to build bookcases and unpack books at its new
location at 2270 Neal Ave. N. Now, to celebrate the relocation and
successful move, Loome Theological Booksellers is holding a two-day Grand
Opening celebration on Friday and Saturday April 26 and 27. All books
will be on sale at 20% off for customers who browse in-store. On Friday
evening customers may attend a talk entitled “The Family Farm and the
Restoration of Society” and on Saturday morning they may attend a talk on
England’s famous convert, John Henry Newman, entitled “Newman’s Quest for a
Real Spiritual Life”. Visit www.LoomeBooks.com
for more information. There will also be refreshments and tours.
Visit www.LoomeBooks.com for more
information.
Loome Theological Booksellers was
founded in 1981 to provide discerning readers with good hard-to-find or
out-of-print books in the Christian theological and intellectual
tradition. Visitors come from all over North America and Europe to browse
the largest selection of theological books found in one place. Thousands
of books are purchasable online through www.LoomeBooks.com.
Claret Farm put down roots in the
fall of 2012. Read more about Claret Farm at www.ClaretFarm.com.
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Thank you so much! That did the trick, you saved me more endless hours of searching for a fix.
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