Little Portion Hermitage marks 45 years in state

John Michael Talbot honored for founding, decades of service

Published: October 19, 2023

By Katie Zakrzewski
Associate Editor

Courtesy Brother John-Marmion Villa

John Michael Talbot, founder of the Little Portion Hermitage in Berryville, plays music during the Mass as part of the hermitage’s 45th anniversary celebration Oct. 4. Nearly 200 clergy, domestic members, musicians and community supporters were in attendance.

Courtesy Brother John-Marmion Villa

Nearly 200 clergy, domestic members, musicians and community supporters gathered in Berryville Oct. 4 on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Little Portion Hermitage, operated by the Brothers and Sisters of Charity and founded by John Michael Talbot.

The day’s festivities included a mid-afternoon Mass with Bishop Anthony B. Taylor and Auxiliary Bishop Gary Janak of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, followed by dinner and an evening program to commemorate the community’s history.

Brother John-Marmion Villa, a monk at the Little Portion Hermitage and the master of ceremonies for the 45th anniversary celebration, said the event was like “a big family reunion.”

“There were people who hadn't been around for a number of years, who hadn't seen other people or who had never been here before, and they were introduced to the people and the property as kids ran around and played,” Brother John-Marmion said.

The Brothers and Sisters of Charity was founded by well-known monk and musician John Michael Talbot in 1978. Originally raised Methodist in a family of musicians, Talbot went on a religious journey throughout his youth to find his spiritual home following the strains a music career put on his personal and family life.

He converted to Catholicism following a divorce and joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1978. While Talbot would spend years writing well-known Catholic hymns, such as “God Alone Is Enough” and “Psalm 95,” as well as dozens of books, God had another project in mind for Talbot.

The Little Portion Hermitage started as what Talbot described as a vision from God.

“It was this first vision that urged me to a contemplative community of prayer, a community of peaceful unity and harmony, a community of everlasting love,” Talbot wrote in his journal at the Alverna Retreat Center in Indianapolis in the spring of 1978. “Jesus has called me to this kind of community and only He can make it a reality in my life, for the love of Jesus and the weight of his cross is this community’s source of life.”

Talbot set out into the wilderness of the Ozark Mountains to build the hermitage he had seen. Soon, the vision came to fruition, and Little Portion was built in 1981. In homage to St. Francis of Assisi, Little Portion is the English translation of the Italian word portiuncula. St. Francis heard the voice of the Lord instructing him to rebuild the Church, and Talbot was eager to follow those footsteps.

Brother John-Marmion said the ceremony honored the musical and spiritual presence of Talbot and the role of Viola Talbot, wife of John Michael Talbot and head of Little Portion Bakery, as co-founder of Little Portion. Additionally, the ceremony acknowledged the persistence of the hermitage, which suffered a devastating fire in 2008 that destroyed the common center and chapel.

Brother John-Marmion played songs from Talbot’s earlier albums when he was still performing with the country folk-rock bank Mason Proffit before converting to Catholicism.

Throughout the evening, board members and guests offered testimonies about the impact the Talbots and Little Portion had on their personal lives. Messages were shared by Catholic musician Tom Booth, music engineer Brent King, Talbot’s older brother and former bandmate, Terry, guitarist Phil Keaggy, Catholic author Mike Aquilina and others.

Finally, the Talbots were presented with gifts to honor their work at Little Portion.

“To commemorate the contribution that John Michael has made to the Catholic Church, particularly in the way of music, we commissioned an icon from Ukraine,” Brother John-Marmion said.

The three-paneled icon, called “The Fellowship of the Fathers,” includes a depiction of Christ the Pantocrator in the center, flanked on either side by depictions of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Benedict, St. Anthony the Great, St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Isaac of Nineveh and St. John Cassian, as well as silhouettes of the dome of St. Peter Basilica in Rome and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

“John Michael has studied these particular saints quite extensively over the years and shared with us unique insights that each has toward monastic spirituality,” Brother John-Marmion said.

The icons of St. Peter Basilica and the Hagia Sophia were selected to emphasize Talbot’s desire “that the Church would breathe from both of her lungs in the east and the west.”

Viola Pratka Talbot was honored for her role at Little Portion. When she was 14 years old, Talbot entered a convent with the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and the Blessed Sacrament in Victoria, Texas. After 28 years, Talbot started a sabbatical at Little Portion, praying to her favorite saint, St. Therese of Lisieux. Talbot was given permission to start her new life at Little Portion, establishing the hermitage bakery.

With the permission of the Diocese of Little Rock, John Michael and Viola married in 1989, and their marriage was blessed by Bishop Andrew J. McDonald, who said their Franciscan vows did not religiously object to the couples’ marriage. Brother John-Marmion, with Bishop Taylor’s help, presented Talbot with a first class relic of St. Therese of Lisieux. Her previous relic had been lost in the 2008 fire.

“The place became a wonderland,” Talbot said of Oct. 4 and the days that followed. “It’s something truly extraordinary when all the domestics and monastics are here at once. … I’ve been to all of the Steubenville events and charismatic conferences. I know what all those things are like and they’re wonderful, but I’ve never seen anything like what happens here when we have our gatherings. It’s the charismatic, the contemplative, spontaneous, liturgical, the monastic and the domestic … all happening at once.”

The ceremony closed by honoring deceased members, as well as old and new members and sharing the work community members have done around the world.

“45 years – how do you boil that down to just a few hours?” Brother John-Marmion said. “Babe Ruth is quoted as saying, ‘Yesterday’s home run doesn’t win today’s baseball game.’ While it’s necessary in one sense to reminisce on the previous 45 years, we don’t want to get stuck there. We also want to look forward to the next 45 years, to begin to imagine what the Lord is going to do as our community is situated in modern day America … unique contemplative spirituality, which is John Michael’s vision, can be a potent antidote to the climate of America and can help the Church in America today.”