Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 272114
Title: Benet "Denis" Tvedten
Date: 11/22/1936-3/17/2026
Inscription/Marks: 11/22/1936
Summary: Our beloved confrère Brother Benet Tvedten passed to his eternal reward, attended by his brothers, on the evening of March 17, 2026, at the Richardton Health Center in Richardton, ND. Brother Benet was 89. The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at Assumption Abbey on March 24, 2026, followed by burial in the Abbey cemetery. Denis Tvedten was born in St. John's Hospital, Fargo, ND, on November 22, 1936, to Carl Olaf Tvedten (+1973) and Margaret Rose O'Neill Tvedten (+1986) of Casselton, ND. He joined two brothers who were already in high school. Denis was educated at public schools in Casselton. An interest in monasticism was piqued in high school when he read Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain. College studies took him to the Benedictine St. John's University, then to Moorhead State College, and then back to St. John's where he graduated in 1957 with a B.A. in English. While at St. John's, he travelled with a friend to the newly founded monastic community of Blue Cloud in Marvin, SD. So taken with that experience, he entered community life there in 1958. On his first day, he was assigned to wash windows in the newly-built guest wing. Having seen the guest master, Brother Simeon, wash windows by crawling outside to the ledge, Denis attempted to do the same and fell ten feet. Result: he broke four bones in his left foot. Back from the hospital with a cast, he was given work in the Appeals Office. It was presumed he would not injure himself addressing envelopes and recording donations. As a novice he was given the name Benet. On February 10, 1960, he professed vows and for the next fifty years he lived monastic life at Blue Cloud Abbey serving at various times as prior, subprior, junior master, novice master, vocation director, oblate director, editor of The Blue Cloud Quarterly, and mail carrier to and from Marvin, SD. Besides producing The Blue Cloud Quarterly for which Benet did most of the writing, he edited a Native American poetry publication which proved so successful that in 2000 he received an award from The Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers at their annual gathering in Tahlequah, OK. There, he met poets and writers he had published. In the meanwhile, he had been writing his own material. In 1985 he received the yearly fiction prize from New Rivers Press of St. Paul, MN, for the novella "All Manner of Monks." He continued publishing short stories and books, among them a commentary on the Holy Rule for oblates, and a personal memoir of monastic life, and "How To Be A Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job," which is still in print. With experience as Blue Cloud's oblate director for many years, in 1997 Benet was elected first director of the newly organized North American Association of Benedictine Oblate Directors. On August 5, 2012, Blue Cloud Abbey was closed. The abbey had only twelve monks, and only two under the age of seventy. Brother Benet chose to move to Assumption Abbey, "coming back to my beloved North Dakota" as he often said. His vows were transferred to Assumption Abbey on July 26, 2013. By then he had already been appointed manager of the Abbey Gift Shop, and editor of the in-house Abbey News. He also became the friendly voice on the phone and greeter in the Visitors Center during morning hours. When Alzheimer's meant that he needed greater care, he moved into the Richardton Health Center in February, 2024. Monks visited him regularly. He died on March 17, the feast of St. Patrick, fortified by the sacraments of the Church and the prayers of his brothers. He was preceded in death by his parents and his two brothers, Kenneth and Lee.
Red ID: FND_I_79607 Image ID: 556854 Image Notes: FND001 272114

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

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