Trappists prepare to break ground on new monastery

Pace Pollard Architects

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A virtual image of the new Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Huntsville reveals a new church, a welcome center, and a wing of rooms for retreatants, all to be built in phase one of the project. conceptual image courtesy of Pace Pollard Architects

HUNTSVILLE — After their plans for a new monastery complex were put on a shelf for almost a year, Trappist Abbot Casimir Bernas and the monks of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville have dusted them off, broken the project down into phases, and are making plans to break ground this summer.

"We’re hoping to break ground in July," Abbot Casimir told the Intermountain Catholic in an April 7 interview. "Right now we’re in the process of selecting a contractor for this plunge in the dark we’re about to take."

What put the project on hold for a time was what Abbot Casimir described as "a less than successful fund raising campaign."

Project Architect Ken Pollard of Pace Pollard Architects in Salt Lake City explained that the timing for raising funds (just after the 9/11 tragedy) worked against the monks.

Trappist Father Charles Cummings, novice master for the abbey, credits Abbot Casimir for breathing new life into the project by breaking it down into affordable phases, thereby giving new hope and vision to the monastery. Fr. Charles and the abbot serve on the monastery building committee.

Phase one of the project includes, the construction of a church "the center of our lives," said Abbot Casimir, a welcome center, guest rooms for retreatants, and living space for the monastery’s 21 permanent monks, three novices, and one postulant.

"We have $4.25 million in hand at the moment," Abbot Casimir said. "We’re going to see how far it will go before we add more rooms for monks and retreatants and landscaping. But, we’re going ahead with phase one, no matter what."

The monastery, which depends on its manufacture of honey, which continues, also has sold chickens, bread, and beef cattle in their nearly 60 years in Utah. The lack of monk-power in the past few years have necessitated selling off the chickens and the cattle, and curtailing the sale of bread.

"The new buildings will allow us to expand our honey business, although we no longer have our own bees," said Abbot Casimir. "But we have expanded our current welcome center to include jellies from a Trappist Monastery in Spencer, Mass. In the past year we’ve also leased some of our farm land and water rights, as well as the grazing and barn facilities."

The abbot said the monastery also continues to receive calls regarding the possible sale of some of their 119 acres of land. "While we want to remain environmentally responsible and we want to maintain our privacy, I don’t think selling off select portions of our land is out of the question, but we have no specific plans for that right now."

Their decision to re-examine the building project came last April, when the monks reset some priorities. Seeing more men expressing interest in the Trappist lifestyle, cloistered and contemplative, also has prompted them to move forward, the abbot said.

Not unappreciative of the "if you build it, they will come" philosophy, both Abbot Casimir and Fr. Charles are praying that breaking ground and seeing walls sprout up from the site will attract new donors and vocations. Postulant Brother Clement Shea, with a background in construction and project management, will serve as the monks’ "eyes and ears on the project."

"We have received a lot of spiritual support from other Trappist communities in the country," Abbot Casimir said. "The American superiors have been very positive, especially because of the beauty of the site and a gradual upturn in vocations."

Unlike traditional monasteries which are built in a quadrangle, the new facility in Huntsville will be open linearly to a glorious view of the Wasatch Mountains from the church, welcome center, and every room.

Architect Pollard said financing the building of a monastery is more challenging than building a parish church. "They have no set congregation on which to rely, so they have to recruit specific donors. We’ve had no major changes from our original building plans, except we’re going to build a permanent church first, instead of a temporary one, and the planned chapter house will be a part of phase two."

Pollard, who has been working on the monastery project since 1999 and has visited Trappist monasteries nationally and internationally, said the monastery’s location is ideal because the nearby communities of Eden and Wolf Creek are areas of projected growth.

Brother Clement looks to the future of the abbey and the building project. "God controls our lives, and we don’t. We are moving into an exciting future in his name."