The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-06-19
THE TRAPPIST ORDER.

Our Lady of Gethsemani, KY. has Just
returned from his official visit to Je-
rusalem and the Holy Land With the
Abbot came the Most Rev. D. Angus
tine Marie, Bishop of Constance and
abbot General of the Trappists, who
for the first time is in America in or
der to visit his children in the New
World.
The village of Gethsemnai, Kentucky.
is fifty miles from Louisville, and is
like nearly every other hamlet in the
state. Its people are tranquil and rus
tic, its buildings are simple, its roads
are bad, its fields are rich. The mon
astery, in look and spirit, is 5000 miles
from the village, yet you can walk the
distance in twenty minutes. You APP
proach it by noble avenue of trees
and bring up at a wide low building,
which bars entrance to the grounds and
which is refuge for tramps when they
ask the charity of the brothers, as we'll
as a lodging for certain dependents.
A knock at the gate brings the old
man in spectacles, who speaks in low,
pleasant tones and takes your message
to his superior, you following as far as
the hOspice, which forms the south por-
ton of the quadrangle. The gate where
by you have entered has in large let
tiers above it. Pax Intrantibus" The
garden which you cross on the way
to the hospice has in its center a statue
of the Blessed Virgin, enshrined amid
flowers and palms, and close by is a
grotto. with representation of ChTiSt's
entombment
This community of Trappists is the
strictest in the United States. 1t is the
only one that adds to the vows of pow
erty, chastity and obedience that of
silence. Something about the very
buildings themselves impresses one
| with this effect of withdrawal from the
world. They look older than their forty
odd years, and the elms about them
| seem to have been growing for cen
turtles. Fronting on the garden is the
hospice, three stories high, and contain
ing chambers with swinging windows
which show remarkable thickness of
wall.
The monastery proper forms two 9TH
er sides of the quadrangle. and the
church the fourth. There is no jerry
work here, The monks made the bricks
themselves and did much of the con-
suction; they have painted and decor
ated the walls and carved and inIaid
the wood Of the chapels. The Abbot's
crozier, formed of thousands Of pieces.
was made by one of the monks. And
having made their home the bretheren
maintain it. Except for such work as
may require the services of an outsid-
er, such as a plumber or an engineer,
or of the physician who makes semi
weekly visits from the world, the econ
omies of the institution are managed
by these humble but indefatigable SER
wants of the faith.
The various trades and callings are
represented. and you will see men in
brown frocks turning or planning wood,
setting type, sewing. mixing drugs,
mixing drugs, mending kettles and
shoeing horses, as we'll as tilling the
fields gathering vegetables, tending
swine. milking cows and driving teams
There are two classes of Trappists-
the choir religious and the lay brothers.
Their mode of life is the same in it's
essentials, but the first named are
bound to perform duty in the choir and
have little longer litany but shorter
hours of manual labor
The choir monks ar generally men
of education. Some of them are priests |
who have resigned their pulpits, some |
are lawyers, some ar teachers, but I'M
der the rule of silence it may be that !
no man knows his neighbor though |
he stand elbow to elbow with him in |
the choir stalls for twenty years.
The choir religious wear white tun- |
ic over which is a black scapular with |
hood attached, these being belted at |
the waist. Outside of both is the cowl, !
a long, white robe with hood and sleeve |
that have to be folded back The lay |
brothers have a similar dress only the |
material is brown. One cannot view
this simple and sufficient costume on a |
warm day without an ardent wish that |
the hard, stiff dress invented of lat
er fashion might evolve back into some
thing like this common garb of the |
masses in Europe in the sixth century.
The way of life is reduced to the ut
most simplicity.
The floors are bare, the table is lean,
the hours are long, and when the monk
retires it is to mattress, straw pillow
and blanket laid upon two or three
boards in a cell six feet three inches in
length by five feet in breadth He
sleeps in his gown, and is heard chant
ing in church five minutes after the
rising bell Unless he is i'll and sent to
the infirmary he has no favors, and Abb
bot and Prior sleep in common cells
like the rest.
The daily routine is this
a. m. Rise con Sunday the rising
bell is at 1900 Psalms follows direct
" on assemblage in the church.
2:S0 Meditation.
s. Canonical office.
AIS Beginning Of private masses.
$50. Prime.
6. Matutinal mass.
$50 Chapter. Lecture to the monks,
of about thirty minutes.
Z Mkt" or breakfast of four
ounces of bread and pint of barley
us Work in the fields, stables,
shops and kitchens.
Q. End of work, followed by free
time for reading, study and walking
in the garden cemetery or corridors.
9:45. Tierce.
10. High mass, followed by text.
IL Dinner.
11:45. Meridian. From Eastern Mon
day to September IA it is required of
each brother that he retire to his cell
for sleep till.
l. None.
.. Work
4:So. End of work, and free time till
$40. Vespers.
5:45. Meditation.
6. Supper. followed by brief interval.
7:10. Reading subject for meditation
on the following day.
7:25. Compline and salve followed
~. Fa1r- r,7ini1fes of absolute silence