After nearly 900 years, the Trappist monks may be leaving the Abbey of Our Lady of La Trappe in Normandy, France, one of the most iconic symbols of the Cistercian tradition founded in the 12th century.
The monks, who belong to the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance — also known as the Trappist order, which follows the Rule of St. Benedict — reported that they were considering leaving the monastery around 2028 due to “the shortage of vocations and the increasing burden of owning the land.”
For the approximately 20 brothers who make up the community located in Soligny-la-Trappe in northwestern France, this decision would signify the end of an era, although they emphasized that the abbey will not close its doors nor is it for sale at the moment.
“Discussions are underway with other communities to find more suitable solutions, more economically and spiritually relevant. The situation has been difficult for several decades now, and many other abbeys have already changed hands,” they stated on March 6.
They added that “the departure of the brothers is very trying and is painful; it will undoubtedly be a profound loss for all those connected, sometimes for generations, to the community.”
Faithful to the tradition of the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks have a guesthouse where they receive the faithful “as if they were Christ himself” and welcome them so they can experience a moment of solitude and reflection in an atmosphere of prayer and peace, as stated on their website.
They also maintain a shop where they sell books, religious articles, and regional products handcrafted at the abbey.
‘An ideological secularism that is rotting the soul of the West’
Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, expressed his sadness at the possibility that the monks might leave the historic monastery.
The prelate noted that it is the “motherhouse of the Trappist order,” a reform of the Cistercian movement and a “particularly intense form of Benedictine life, famous for its austerity and silence.”
Barron explained that he came to know the abbey through the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, an American theologian and writer, and emphasized that the La Trappe abbey “has survived the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War, the Protestant Reformation, the French Revolution, and the world wars of the 20th century.”
“That this venerable monastery cannot find enough vocations to keep it alive is, in my judgment, a sign of the spiritual disaster that has befallen Europe in the last hundred years: an ideological secularism that is rotting the soul of the West,” he lamented.
Given this situation, the bishop asked for renewed prayers so that the monks “might find a way to preserve their great abbey. It is needed especially now.”