If you asked most folks across the South Shore if they’ve ever heard of Thomas Stephen Monaghan, many would simply shrug their shoulders.
Yet at some point you’ve more than likely chowed down on a pizza his company made or have benefitted from how he revolutionized the speed of hot food delivery across America.
You see, Mr. Monaghan not only owned the Detroit Tigers, but he founded Domino’s Pizza.
From a purely financial standpoint the former CEO and now current Catholic philanthropist has been wildly successful, having sold his pizza empire in 1998 for $1 billion.
The biggest mark Monaghan now wants to make on the world centers on his devout faith and a 5,000-acre patch of land about an hour east of Fort Myers, Florida. What he’s built there is a modern day miracle. It’s a place and pilgrimage I try to take once a year to live, breathe, feel, and experience the beauty of Catholic action.
Monaghan had a tough life. He built his business empire from scratch. He most definitely wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Monaghan’s father died when he was just four years old. Two years later his mother had to place him and a younger brother in a Catholic orphanage in Michigan.
After attending a Catholic High School, the budding entrepreneur served in the Marines and then entered architecture school. To support his education. Monaghan took out a loan of $900, bought a pizza shop called “DomiNick’s,” changed the name to Domino’s, and the rest is history.
Yes, he achieved fiscal and monetary success beyond his wildest dreams despite the challenges of a rough childhood. According to his biography, business pursuits would sometimes “get in the way” of living his Catholic faith with passion and purpose. Strongly pro-life, Monaghan for the most part parted with his businesses, sold it off, and focused on a faith based challenge from an old nun who raised him.
“He recalled the kind words of Sister Berada from his days at the orphanage. Was he being the kind of Catholic that Sister Berarda would want him to be? He knew he needed to do much more,” stated his bio on Ave Maria University’s website.
The “much more” he had in mind was building a massive Catholic University and community to beat back anti-Christian sentiment creeping into American culture, a place where Catholic values could be nurtured, shared, valued, and fought for.
At first his new Catholic University was going to be built in his native Michigan. The good Lord and Ann Arbor Charter Township had other plans. They denied his zoning request to build on existing property at Domino’s headquarters.
That’s when Monaghan focused on a patch of land, at the time 750 acres, in the “middle of nowhere” of inland Florida, outside of Naples and Fort Myers.
He literally built a massive “Catholic City” in the middle of Florida that is now home to Ave Maria University, an incorporated town with a population of 6,242 according to the most recent census, and a bustling community of supermarkets, shops, schools, centered by a 60,000 square foot church.
“The Oratory” at Ave Maria University can seat more than 3,000 congregants and serves as the heart of Ave Maria, Florida.
My first trip to Ave Maria was back in 2010, a few years after it was founded. My wife Ashley and I have many friends living in this neck of the woods, so we try to visit the area once a year.
If you happen to hit the road for Florida in the weeks and months ahead, your drive to Ave Maria from Naples or Fort Myers is anywhere from 45-to-60 minutes depending on the traffic. You most certainly don’t have to be Catholic to visit this impressive masterpiece.
In the same way Monaghan built Domino’s Pizza into a massive business empire from nothing, he’s now built a beacon of faith, hope, and light where there was none just a touch north of “Alligator Alley.”
It’s a beautiful place where I try to recharge the spiritual batteries once a year. I’d encourage you to do the same, regardless of your spiritual beliefs. It’s a blessing to see the power of what one person can do, the positive impact they can have on our world, by putting action behind our Christian faith.
