SPENCER – Father Peter was born on November 25, 1942 to ethnic German parents, Karl and Elisabeth Schmidt, in the Moravian town of Mährisch-Trübau, now part of the Czech Republic. As the Russian army approached the area in 1945 after World War II ended, the entire family, including the five children, fled to Braunschweig, West Germany. As a schoolboy there, Peter often passed the 12 th century Cistercian Abbey of Riddagshausen, now a parish church, and it was those walks to the imposing structure that kindled in him a monastic vocation. In college he studied pedagogics, German literature and history. Post-graduate work continued with philosophy and theology classes in Salzburg, Austria. After completing his master’s degree in 1970, he went to the Trappist Cistercian Abbey of Mariawald in Heimbach, Germany, for a prolonged period of discernment. He entered the monastery that same year, taking the monastic name Gotthard. After professing temporary vows, he was sent to the University of...
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