GOFFSTOWN — Abbot Matthew Leavy is retiring June 5 after nearly three decades as the abbot of St. Anselm Abbey and chancellor of St. Anselm College, according to the school.

Elected in 1986, Leavy is among the longest-serving abbots in the Benedictine Order worldwide, the school said in a press release. The college's monastic community will elect a new abbot June 5.

Neither Leavy nor college President Father Jonathan DeFlice could be reached Tuesday night for comment.

According to St. Anselm, the school has elected a new abbot just four times since 1927, when Abbot Bertrand Dolan was elected. Dolan remains the school's longest serving abbot, having served for 36 years, the release said.

The abbot is the monastic community's religious superior and spiritual leader, the release said. As chancellor, Leavy oversaw the college's change in governance to a new model with lay members sharing responsibility for the college. Leavy also taught in the psychology department.

A native of the Bronx, N.Y., Leavy took vows as a monk in 1968 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1975, the release said. He has a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master of divinity degree at St. Albert's Dominican College and completed a doctorate at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

According to the release, Leavy will continue to serve on the Abbot President's Council of the American-Cassinese Congregation of Benedictine Monasteries and will be a presenter at the upcoming world Congress of Benedictine Abbots in Rome next September. In addition, he plans to continue to serve the abbey and college during his retirement, the release said.

“We can all be very grateful for the long service of Abbot Matthew to both our monastic and college communities, for the care he has so often exercised for us individually and collectively, and for the many gifts and talents he brought to his work,” DeFelice said in a statement.