St. Joseph's Abbey Information & St. Joseph's Abbey Links at HealthHaven.com

St. Joseph's Abbey is a monastery of the Catholic Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.), popularly known as the "Trappists", located in Spencer, Massachusetts.

[edit] Overview

While the monastery became known internationally as the origin of the centering-prayer movement in Catholicism and Christianity in the 1970s — whose leading proponents were monks at the monastery: Fr. William Meninger, Fr. M. Basil Pennington and Fr. Thomas Keating — their monastic life/adventure is sustained by the daily communal praying of the Psalms, the sacraments, and the profound mystical tradition found in the scriptures and continued in the lives of the Saints and Doctors of the Church.

A contemporary summary/analysis of Christian spirituality from a Trappist author can be found in the book - "Hammer And Fire", by Fr. Raphael Simon O.C.S.O., M.D.

St. Joseph's Abbey is supported in part by its production of Trappist Preserves, commercially sold jams and jellies.

[edit] Very Brief history

Father Augustine de Lestrange led into exile a group of Cistercians from La Trappe, France, during the French Revolution. They relocated and continued their monastic lives in the abandoned Carthusian monastery of La Val Sainte in Switzerland. After a time, Belgian and French Trappist monks settled in Nova Scotia in the early 1800's, and then, later, in Cumberland Rhode Island. St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer Massachusetts was settled in 1950 on property of the former Alta Cresta Farms, where the community lives a contemplative way of life, following the "Rule Of St. Benedict" ( 4th century A.D.), within the Cistercian (Trappist) Order, begun in 1098 A.D.

In 1954, shortly after their arrival in Spencer, a small stove-top batch of mint jelly was made by the monks with the great excess of mint from the herb garden. Since monastic austerity at that time precluded the jelly from being served to the monks at meals, it was sold at the Porter's Lodge. The response was highly encouraging. Other varieties were quickly tried, and soon jelly-making proved to be a successful and compatible monastic industry which would contribute to the monks' self-support. In these traditions, Trappist Preserves came into being.

The monks support themselves primarily through their production of Trappist Preserves, which can be found in many supermarkets throughout New England and other regions of the United States.

[edit] External links

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