An egalitarian spirit as Christ taught is practiced. It does not segregate according to wealth or social standing. Teachers and toilers, educated and unschooled, rich and poor, healers and the hurt, pray, eat, sleep, work and wonder together in the chapel, the refectory, the guesthouses, the fields and along dirt paths. The single and married, divorced or widowed, young and old, restless and discouraged come to seek God. Most are curious about these men who don a habit and pursue this calling.
Facts often mix with apocrypha or one's fancy.
The monks who have come and gone or remain are doctors, lawyers, laborers, priests, businessmen, professors, architects, psychologists and artists from places as distant as Germany, Austria, Denmark, Canada, Cuba and every corner of America. Aside from their common search, their personalities are distinct. Some are playful, others serious. At times, they are weak, tired, discouraged, anxious or at odds with one another. In other words, they have all the qualities and quirks, loveable and otherwise, that go with being human.