When Richard Heindl, a great-great-great nephew of Saint Vincent College founder Boniface Wimmer, arrived on campus Friday night, he said the first thing he saw was the Archabbey Basilica.

"To see the towers of the basilica at night was my first impression of this place," said Mr. Heindl. "And the way we have been hosted here, the community of monks, is just fantastic."

Mr. Heindl was part of a delegation from Father Wimmer's German hometown of Thalmassing. He and his fellow visitors were not the first to be surprised by the sight of Saint Vincent's basilica perched on a hill above farmland.

Saint Vincent is generally recognized as a Catholic college where the Steelers hold preseason training camp. Not many people realize it also is home to the largest Benedictine abbey in the world.

Even members of the Thalmassing delegation, who are visiting Saint Vincent as part of a celebration of Boniface Wimmer's 200th birthday, say they have learned some new things -- not only about Saint Vincent, but about their native son and the huge role he played in the Catholic Church and the Benedictine Order in the United States.

Today, Saint Vincent serves as a college and seminary, as well as a monastery for almost 200 Benedictine monks. But when Father Wimmer arrived in 1846, Saint Vincent had a small, rural Catholic congregation.

The 18 young men Father Wimmer brought with him from Germany became Saint Vincent's first seminary class, making Saint Vincent the first Benedictine monastery in this country.

Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B., current head of Saint Vincent, said Father Wimmer's personal motto -- "forward, always forward" -- came in handy as he confronted American challenges.

Right away, the monk found his parish's needs required a different interpretation of monastic duties than he had learned in Germany.

Although Saint Vincent's seminary was intended to educate monks, Archabbot Nowicki said, "the surrounding farmers came to him and asked, 'Will you educate our sons?' "

Father Wimmer responded by opening enrollment to laymen. The college was certified by the state to offer degrees in 1870.

When he found his flock had more Irish and Eastern European members than German, Father Wimmer adapted, requiring his monks to learn English and offering classes taught in Eastern European languages.

Archabbot Nowicki added that this adaptation in the face of American diversity also extended to Boniface Wimmer's wide-ranging missionary activities.

He sent his monks out to found seven more Benedictine abbeys, 150 Benedictine parishes and 75 Benedictine schools, in places as diverse as Chicago and Newark, N.J.; the wilds of Saskatchewan and Colorado; and the Deep South of Alabama and Georgia.

He also established schools for Native Americans and African-Americans, two populations not always recognized by church leaders of that time.

The archabbot noted that despite not being well known in the United States, Father Wimmer has been called "the greatest Catholic missionary of 19th-century America" by the noted Catholic historian John Tracy Ellis.

And he said Father Wimmer's accomplishments were recognized by another notable authority on the history of the Catholic church.

During a 2008 trip to Rome, the archabbot presented a newly published collection of Father Wimmer's letters to Pope Benedict XVI, who is also from Germany.

"He said, 'Oh, our most famous Bavarian,' " said the archabbot. "And I responded, 'The second most famous, Your Holiness.' "

The plan for a delegation from Thalmassing to visit Saint Vincent and other sites connected to Father Wimmer arose from a visit to Bavaria that Archabbot Nowicki made in 2005. He first traveled to Thalmassing in 1996, on the occasion of Saint Vincent's 150th anniversary, and will return in October for a10-day visit.

The German delegation, which includes townspeople from Thalmassing as well as American descendents of Father Wimmer's family, also will visit Pittsburgh, Ligonier, Carrolltown (Cambria County) and Washington, D.C.

Father Wimmer's statue stands at the center of Thalmassing, but the town's mayor, Alfons Kiendl, said the 200th anniversary of the monk's birth had given everyone an opportunity to learn more about him.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Kiendl said Thalmassing residents "are all very proud of their citizen," but that details had emerged that had increased their esteem for Father Wimmer's achievements.

Pastor Anton Schober, who has served 30 years in the church where Father Wimmer was ordained in 1831, added that all his historical study couldn't do what this visit has done.

"The real impressions, to be in that place where he was, are much more than I've known before," Pastor Schober said through an interpreter. "Our respect for this great son of our community and parish has increased when we can see with our own eyes his life and work."

For more information about the life of Boniface Wimmer and the Saint Vincent Archabbey, go to www.saintvincentarchabbey.org.

For more about the college, go to www.stvincent.edu or call 724-532-6600.