On June 8, 2024, the Cistercian monks of Notre Dame d’Oelenberg Abbey in Reiningue (Haut-Rhin), permanently left their monastery, as they had announced on the abbey’s website.
Starting on that date, they specify, “Mass will be held every Sunday in the Crypt,” which is “open Monday to Saturday.”
The mill that produces Oelenberg flour and the monastic shop continue their activities thanks to a team of employees on-site.
The Diocese of Strasbourg published a press release on May 28, from Dom Samuel Lauras, Abbot of the Czech monastery of Nový Dvůr and Monastic Commissioner of Oelenberg.
“For two years already,” he indicates, “the monks of Oelenberg have been reflecting on their future, since the aging of the monks and the resignation due to age from their Abbot, Dom Dominique-Marie Schoch [in 2017], no longer allow them to lead the monastic life at Oelenberg in conformance with the Rule of St. Benedict, in conditions adapted to the formation of young brothers and materially satisfactory.
“The Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance [Trappists] and the Diocese of Strasbourg have built relationships of trust to find good solutions to this situation, for the monks as much as for those who are attached to their presence in Alsace,” Dom Samuel continues.
“The secularization that Christians are courageously facing in Europe is weakening the monasteries and it is not possible to hope for help from other communities. Some time has been given to the monks to freely discern what God expects of them,” Dom Samuel explains.
“After a two-month retreat in different monasteries of the Order until Pentecost Sunday 2024, they decided to join these communities to consider settling there permanently, in order to unite their forces to those of their brothers at Timadeuc, Acey, Mont des Cats, and Scourmont [Belgium].
“The Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance and the diocese are now preparing a Christian future on the site of the monastery,” the press release laconically concludes.
“In 1046, Heilwige de Dabo [Heilwig of Dabo], Countess of Eguisheim and mother of Pope Leo IX, founded a priory of Canons Regular of Saint Augustine on the hill (Berg) along a stream (Oelen) [...] In 1049, Pope St. Leo IX himself consecrated the chapel,” the monastery website explains. The same Pope also deposited there the relics of St. Romain, martyr.
The website continues: “During the Revolution, the abbey buildings were confiscated and sold to an industrialist from Mulhouse.” The monks of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance settled there in 1825.
“At the beginning of the 20th century, the abbey had 200 monks: 80 priests and 120 lay brothers,” the abbey’s website specifies. In 2023, there were only ten left, including two over 80-years old and four brothers in training, with 25,000 square meters of buildings to maintain.