MONCKS CORNER, S.C. — “A year and a half ago, I could do anything — run the chain saw, cut up trees, use a backhoe.” Brother Joseph Swedo was bent forward in his chair, his rugged hands folded ...

Brother Joseph Swedo was bent forward in his chair, his rugged hands folded delicately in his lap. As a monk at Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery in South Carolina, he maintains that Roman Catholic ...

Several Catholic orders, ranging from the Carmelite nuns to the Capuchin friars, practice the rule of silence. None has observed it as strictly as the Trappist monks who, since their founding in 1098, ...

Life is not easy among the Trappists. The order known as the Cistercians of the Strict Observance is one of the most austere in the Roman Catholic Church. On ordinary days rising hour is 2 a.m. (it is ...

The Aspen Times recently reported that the St. Benedict’s Monastery property on Capitol Creek is for sale. The popular bookstore/gift shop and retreat facilities have already closed, and the dwindling ...

A Trappist monastery in Vina has earned yet another wine competition award, drawing people's attention to this Northstate ...

St. Benedict’s Monastery held its final public Mass on Jan. 11, with four of the five remaining monks transferring to other ...

In 2023, my wife Liz embarked on a self-guided spiritual retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery in Nelson County. She returned with an armful of books and souvenirs from the ...

Three Roman Catholic monks are fighting to keep alive a monastic cheese-making tradition in Bosnia that has been passed down by word of mouth for 130 years. The pale yellow Trappist cheese made by ...