LAND OF ETERNAL SILENCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 294, 8 June 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

LAND OF ETERNAL SILENCE

CITY MEN'S REST CURE TN A TRAPPIST MONASTERY. Montreal, April 12. A haven of relief for business and professional men, worn with the rush and toil of everyday affairs, appears to have been found in the Trappist Monastery of New Melleray. Dubuque, Towa. A prominent commercial agent who recently visited the monastery aptly describes it as "the land of eternal silence." This description, he observes, might apply to any one of the half-dozen Trappist settlements in Canada and the United States, but it is only the visitor from the noisy and bustling world who ran fully appreciate the isolation and death-like stillness of these places, where vow of silence are required of every one who passes within the gates. Those who. seeking rest and quietude, go to New Melleray will find the monastery. which is shaped like a cross, cut off from the rest of the world, fenced in and bolted and barred at every entrance. The rigors of the order are very severe. The Trappists rise at two o'clock in the morning and remain praying oil their knees in the chapel for four hours. After a simple breakfast work in the fields proceeds until close oil midday, when a small repast is served. Field work again occupies the afternoon, and after supper and prayers each brother retires to his hard, wooden pallet. Not a single word escapes their lips, either while working or resting. Over the main entrance of the monastery is an inscription which forbids women. "under pain of excommunication," to enter the building. The monastery, which was first founded at Dubuque, sixty years ago, was erected by the monks themselves, and all visitors who go there, even if it be for a few days, are expected to do something toward* perfecting the building.