Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-03-10
RULES FOR A LONG LIFE.
How Trappist Monks of Orne Feel
Busy and Well on Simple Fare.

How Trappist Monks of Orne Keep
Busy and Well on Simple Fare.
A German doctor recently visited
the great monastery of Trappist monks
at Orne, in Brittany, made friends with
the doctor monk, who has spent TWEEN
ty years there, studied the monks
ways, books, memoranda and church
register and finally their burying place
in the cloisters. There he found that
of the last four monks buried one had
attained the age of IS and had lived
| fifty-one years in the monastery. An
| other had died at 80, a third at 81 and
the youngest was Is when he died All
four had become monks about half a
century ago.
One monk still living is SO and there
are at least twelve others more than
80 Years old.
The monastery doctors record book,
which shows exactly what ailments
the monks suffered from during the
last twenty years, proves that there
has not been a single case of apoplexy,
dropsy, appendicitis, cancer, cholera or
other disease that may be traced back
to inattention to recognized laws of
proper living.
An international committee of doc
tors which visited the monastery some
years ago obtained exact information
on the monks way of living and all
the members expressed their great sur
prise at the perfect state Of health in
which they found the brothers and at
tanned The majority of doctors was
disposed to attribute these undeniable
facts to the vegetarian diet, the regu-
lar habits and the hard work
After bUsying themselves with
books, music, painting, scientific re-
search, they have to go into the fields
and do agricultural labor, they have
to work in the garden, in the brewery
and in the flour mill.
The most wonderful part of their ex-
istence is the small amount of nourish-
ment required to keep them alive and
in good health, says the New York
World They breakfast at on a pot
of barley coffee and milk and a piece
of brown bread. They take nothing
between 5 and noon, when dinner is
partaken of by all together, a soup Of
greens and vegetables with perhaps a
little rice or oats in it. Then vege-
tables, spinach, cabbage, carrots, beans,
peas, with sauerkraut to relish the
daily potatoes and on extra days some
coarse pastry.
The diet does not comprise eggs in
any form. Fresh or dried fruit, wal
nuts and piece Of bread are given for
dessert. The supper is very much
like the dinner, but there is less of it
| cheese is allowed. Beer was consider
ed necessary for the nutrition of the
body when the order was founded At
present many brothers do without it.
| The doctor says that men who enter
the order when they are quite grown
up get accustomed to the diet in a
very short time and thrive upon it, en-
| loving better health than they had be
| fore.
No doubt the variety of occupation,
the moderation in eating and drinking
and last, but not least, the absence of
all worry and concern for the morrow
keep the brothers in good health, and
add to the length of their days.
Napoleon /. was advised to dissolve
the order of Trappists, but he did not
Immediately sanction the proposal, say
ing he would see for himself He Wis
tied Orne and finding the convent in
ship-shape order and the old monks
busily at work, he said: Il have found
men who eat little and work much. Let
them go on with it as an example to
others"