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FEBRUARY 24, 1945
0F TH E CATHOLIC LAVMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
ELEVEN
Magazine Section of St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Features Article by Davenport Steward, on
Industry and Piety of Trappists in Georgia
Trappist Monks in Georgia Build a Monastery
Through the courtesy of Don
H. Thompson, Feature Editor of
THE ST. EOIIIS TIMES-DIS-
Patch, The Bulletin is pleased
to reprint, for the benefit or its
readers, an article which was
written by Davenport Steward,
special correspondent of TIIF.
TIMES-DISPATCH, which ap
peared in (lie Everyday Maga
zine section of that newspaper
several weeks ago.
As the article by Mr. Stew
ard, who is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Charles J. Steward, of Au
gusta, has as its subject the
Trappist Monastery which was
established near Conyers, Geor
gia, last March, by members of
(he Order of Cistercians of (he
Strict Observance, from the
Abbey of Our Lady of Gctli-
scmanc, in Kentucky, tells how
(he industrious and pious mem
bers of the Trappist commun
ity have won die respect of
their neighbors who had re
garded their arrival with some
misgivings, it is believed that
readers of The Bulletin will
find (he article just as inter
esting as they did the one on
the observance of Christmas at
die Monastery, which appeared
in the January issue of The Bul
letin,
On an isolated 1700-acre farm
near Conyers'. Georgia, the im
pressive white-shingled Monas
tery of Our Lady of the Holy
Ghost—built of wood cut, hauled
and sawed by sturdy, abstemious
monks and lay brothers of tin*
rigid Trappist Order of the Rom
an Catholic Church—is approach
ing completion. It may be finished
by March, just a year after the
arrival in Georgia from Kentucky
of the contingent which estab
lished the fourth of (lie Trappist
Order's foundations in the United
States.
Some day the frame structure
may be replaced by an even more
magnificent one of Stone Moun-
ain granite, but the building even,
in its unfinished condition is a’
striking example of Trappist
prayer and industry. A quad
rangle built about a court, where
some day flowers will flourish, it
is two stories high and its four
wings each are 100 feet long.
Less than a year ago there was no
structure where it now stands
and not until December were the
tonsured, hooded and cowled si
lent “victims for the world,” vow
ed to a life of poverty, chastity
and obedience, able to transfer
their few belongings from the
barn which had housed chapel,
dormitory, refectory and farm ani
mals since their arrival on March
22. 1944.
Some outside labor has been
employed in construction, be
cause there are but 28 Trappi^s
here, but most of the work is be
ing done by these ascetic men
who have given up the world.that
they might pray and do penance
for all mankind, regardless of
creed or color. Every priest, stu
dent and lay brother has some
skill or trade. One priest, for ex
ample. is making cement blocks
used in the construction of the
boiler house.
At this time there are tenants
on the farm—unlike most land
lords, the Trappists were besieg
ed by would-be sharecroppers, ac
cording to the local superior. Fa
ther M. James Fox—but the day
of removal for all is not far in (lie
offing. Trappists do their own
farming and are famed for the
cheese they manufacture.
In moving from the barn to
incomplete monastery in Decern- I
her. the 11 priests, eight students
and nine lay brothers obtained
hu ger and cleaner quarters, but
the simplicity of their life has
not been altered. Built largely of
unseasoned lumber, which is al
ready warping—trees sometimes
were cut in the morning, sawed at
noon and the lumber nailed in
place in the afternoon—the huge
building is drafly and the winter
wind in Georgia is raw. It's still
cold enough in the unhealed tem
porary chapel for the holy water
to freeze, as happened in the
chapel in the barn. But despite
the chill in the chapel, the priests
devote about seven hours a day to
divine offices and lay brothers de
vote four.
When the monastery Is complet
ed, there will be steam heat in the
chapel, in the study rooms and in
the visitors’ quarters. Unheated
will be the dormitory, where each
member has a curtained cell for
privacy: and unheated will be the
refectory where neither flesh, fish
nor fowl is served, where butter
is a rarity and where milk and
cheese are allowed only at certain
periods.
No order of the Roman Catho
lic Church is more rigid in its
rules than is the Order of Cister
cians of the Strict Observance or
I rappist Order. The lives of mem
bers — priests and lay brothers
alike—are truly devoted to pov
erty. chastity and obedience. Only
the local superior and the ap
pointed guest master may speak
with the visitors from the outside,
except by permission of the supe
rior. Members of the order wish
ing to speak address* the father
superior, “Bencdieite—please.” If
he is busy, he shakes his head: if
permission is granted, he says, |
"Dominus—Lord.”
The rule of silence is not re
garded as a particular hardship;
for men concerned with thoughts
of God have little need for con
versation and besides, silence
breeds no arguments, no discords.
Before a man may take perpetual
vows for the priesthood he must
have been a novice under tempo
rary vows for five years.
In secluding themselves from
the rest of the world, the Cister
cians of the Strict Observance are
not misanthropes, Father James
points out.
“Our life is neither natural nor
unnatural, but supernatural.” ex
plains the thin, kindly, ascetic su
perior, himself a Harvard grad- *
uate, magna cum laude. World
War T naval officer and onetime
priest in a less rigid Catholic ol
der.
“We are Trappists not because
we shun our fellows, but because
we love them. T can remembei
when 1 wondered and failed to
understand . . but God aids us.
“We are made for eternity; the
true life is the life beyond the
grave. The aim of the Trappist is
to get as many into heaven as pos
sible.”
Priests and lay brothers may be
told apart by their garb. In choir
the priests wear white vestments,
and their ordinary habit is a white
robe with black scapular. Lay
brothers wear brown woolen hab
its. For some manual work, monks
don blue habits of coarse cloth.
The long simple garment is
caught at the waist by a leather
belt, and outdoors the attached
cowl is used to cover tonsured
heads.
In choir, particularly, time is
turned back, back, back, to the
fifth and sixth centuries A. D.. to
the time of St. Benedict. The Cis
tercians of the Strict Observance
sprang from the Benedictine
ranks about the twelfth century,
when some of the monks wished
to follow more closely the origi
nal rule of St. Benedict. There’s
a medieval flavor in the great,
thick psalters, one before each
priest, all printed in Latin or
Greek.
Trappist monks and lay broth
ers, < xcept the superiors, never
read the newspapers or any writ
ings not of a religious nature.
The brethren are kept acquainted
with the general happenings by
their superior; and while all know
there is a war going on, few could
tell you the names of two gener
als or even one. At meals, a desig
nated member sits at the head of
the refectory table and reads
from a religious work, w'hile the
rest eat their simple coarse food
with wooden forks and spoons or
drink milk or barley coffee from
quaint two-handled cups, all pre
scribed.
Every priest and lay brother
has a church name; family names
are all but forgotten. Members of
their families may visit them once
a year and fourt times a year—at
Christmas. Easter, the Feast of
Our Lady’s Assumption and the
Feast of All Saints—they may re
quest permission to write imme
diate relatives.
A typical Trappist day. begin
ning at 2 o'clock in the morning
starts with the singing of the Ma
tins and Lauds in the chapel.
Priests celebrate private Masses
at 4 o'clock and at 5-30 the monks
repair again to the chapel for the
Office of Prime. Then follows a
half-hour—not devoted, however,
to any form of rest or relaxation,
but to study and prayer. Then
comes manual labour until 9:30.
the conventional Mass is sung. At
11 a. m., the combined dinner and
breakfast—barley coffee, vegeta
ble soup, fruit and all the bread
desired—is served.
Free time following dinner ends
at 1 p. m., when the Office of
None (the ninth hour) is chanted
in choir. Manual labor until 4
o'clock folows, vespers are at 4:45
p. m., meditation is at 5:15, and
at_5:30 the evening collation (six
Last March, twenty-one mem
bers of the Order of Cistercians
ot the Strict Observance, from
the Abbey of Our Lady of Gctli-
semani, in Kentucky, came to
Georgia to establish in Rockdale
County, near Conyers, the Mon
astery of Our Lady of the Holy
Ghost, locating on a desirable
tract of farm and wood land that
had been acquired a few weeks
before by the Right Rev. Frederic
M. Dunne. O. C. S. O.. Abbot of
the Monastery in Kentucky.
Living quarters were first set
up in a large white-brick barn
where the loft had been converted
into a chapel, a dormitory and a
community room, with a refectory
and a kitchen in an adjacent
grain house.
Some day. on the property, the
Trappists will build, of Georgia
granite, which is available in
abundance nearby, a Monastery
which will resemble those erect
ed in (lie medieval times.
Until that day, the Trappists
will occupy a frame-building
which is now being completed.
Practically all of the work of
building the temporary Monas
tery has been done by the priests
and lay brothers of the commun
ity. To the left above, a Trappist
monk and a lay brother are pic
tured at their work; to the right,
above, one of the Trapists is
shown removing a cement block
from the form; to the right, a
monk is pictured with the unfin
ished Monastery in the back
ground, as he sprays the blocks
with water during a three-day
setting period; below, to the left,
is a picture of two priests, en
gaged in building the boiler room
of cement blocks, and below, to
the right, one of the monks is
pictured as he kneels in prayer
before the altar in the Monastery
chapel. — (Photos — Courtesy of
the St. Louis Post-Disnatch).
ounces of bread some fruit and
barley coffee) is served.
Spiritual reading is at 6:10 p.
m., and the day is closed with
chanting the Office of Compline
and singing of "Salve Regina
(Hail, Holy Queen).” At 7 o'clock
the members retire to their stalls,
remove their monastery made
shoes and lie down on the straw
mattresses for their night’s rest.
The Georgia Trappists all came
from the Abbey of Our Lady of
Gethsemane, Trappist, Ky., estab
lished in 1848. There are two oth
er monasteries, in Iowa and
Rhode Island. Twenty were in the
first group which detrained at At
lanta, on their way. to the original
1465-acres farm purchased from
an Atlanta business man for $45.-
000. This farm, since added to.
once was part of a vast Georgia
farm owned by Colleen Moore, si
lent motion picture star.
The Monastery of Our Lady of
the Holy Ghost is located in an
area predominantly Protestant in
population. Some of the folks in
Conyers and on the red clay lands
about there were disturbed when
the Trappists first came. Who
were these strange, cowled, and
silent, but smiling men, who luck
ed up their robes and cheerfullv
performed the hardest kind of
manual labor? Would they begin
to proselyte among the Baptists,
the Methodists and the Presbyte
rians? Conyers and much of
Georgia wondered.
Soon it became apparent that
few of the monks and lay brot It
ers ever left the monastery prop
erty, and it w.-i equally obvious
that they were not members of a
missionary order.
Folks hereabout still don't pre
tend to understand the Trappist
way of life: but today, l-ss than a
year from the time of their arriv
al. the cowled penitents for the
world are regarded in the light
of respect rather than suspicion.
Bet-
Belly
Mary
Edna
Barragan,
Ann Kav-
Lucil'.e
MEXICAN CATHOLICS are es
tablishing and supporting centers
for gratituitous medical consulta
tion in connection with the parish
churches of Mexico City.
ST. VINCENT ACADEMY
names honor students
SAVANNAH, Ga.—Names oi
the following students of St. Vin
cent Academy appear on the hon
or roll for t he first semester:
Senior class—Jane Joyce,
ty Holland, Patricia White,
Walsh. Mary Ann DuPont.
Sue Beytagh, Mary Powers,
Casey, Helen DeVerc,
Junior Class—Patty
Leonora Browne, Mary
nnaugh. Mary Miller.
Guild, Thercse Furlong.
Sophomore class—Phyllis
Patricia Moore, Mildred
Betty Stalvey, Catherine
Paid, Mary Jo llarle. Rose
Ware, Lillie Kelly, Gertrude Ke-
hoe, Betty Buttimer. Mark Keat
ing, Annette Desposito, Caroline
Gross, Jean O’Connor, Helene
Veronee.
Freshman class—Georgia Spil-
lane, Martha Kavanaugh, Mary)
Grace Harvery, Monica Ulivo,
Mary Payne, Jane Redmond,
Louise May, Juliannc Jarvis, Mau
reen Haupt.
Saraf
Laird
Sliep-
Mary