Sharp County record., 1881-04-07
The Monastery Of st. Bernard.


There, in the open portals of the edi-
fee. stood friar, prOyerbially fat, red
faced and Jolly, who saluted us with
his bare head. He wore brown habit
and sandals, and carrieda a bunch OF Keys
at his girdle. The gray stone facade OF
the monastery was draped with IVY
and the doors were oaken and iron
studded. We followed the reverend
brother into the stone-hagged entrance,
and waited there for time until we
were ushered up a narrow flight OF
stairs into room hung with religious
prints and pictures, and filled with shop
counters containing all sorts of articles,
which particularly alert and bright
eyed brother informed us, were Tor
sale. Do not Judge this commercial
prelude too harshly. They "must llVe' ~
and must dispense charity to impoy-
erished applicants, no matter what their
creed. We had a practical illustration
of this a few moments after, when
emerging into the grounds, we caught
sight of a hungry group in an ante
room of the left wing, being fed with
meat and porridge to their heart s con-
tent Most of the articles for sale are
made by the monks themselves, and the
combined pen-holderS and paper-cut-
ters, for example, contained view OF
the abbey, to be seen by closing one eye
and looking through a microscopic
opening. Then there were cruciiiXes'
photographs of the building and OF the
brethren, roSaries, watch-charms, etc.,
and l saw an interesting relic in the
shape of curious bit of rough statuary
in bas-relief representing three monks
of very remote period; this was part
of the altar piece of a church long
buried in the sands of Penzance.
There was damp and musty smell
in the corridors and chapels far from
agreeable; everywhere religious pictures
and scriptural texts meet the eye and
cause one to forget, as much as possible,
the unpleasant Odor-I had almost said
effluyia. The new chapel is high
rotunda, and in the center of the floor
is d memorial tablet to the first Abbot
of the monastery, the parti-colored mo-
sale setting forth his virtues and hOnors.
In another chapel is gallery to which
the public are admitted on Sundays dur
ING service, and here and elsewhere APP
plications are filed to "pray for the
soul' of this or that brother or sister,
the black bordered communications
coming from all parts Of England,
France and America.
The apartment in which we were
most interested was the dining-hall;
down the center extended a plain deal,
uncovered table, and at each place We're
q wooden spoon, knife and fork and
salt-cellar. The monks eat nOmeat un-
less on rare occasions, and their fare is
literally bread and water, as a rule; Oc-
casionally table beer is served. They
seem in perfect health.
In the center of the monastery is
grass-grown court, bright with autumn
flowers; that this formerly served as Il
burial ground is shown by the innu-
merable wooden crosses which mark
each verdant mound, inscribed with the
name of the departed brother. The
effect of this "village of the dead set
in the midst of the gloomy cloisters, is
of curiously complex character, for in
reality it is'by contrast far less sOmbre
than they, its green verdure and bright
flowers making it picturesque garden
spot in the center of q prison. The
dead thus seem far better off than the
living.