photo from the Abbey's website. 

A Modern Pilgrimage to Assumption Abbey—Part 2

The first part of this story covered my road trip in early October to Assumption Abbey, the monastery in Douglas County, 23-miles southeast of Ava, Missouri. By way of recapitulation, the purpose of the trip was to interview Father Cyprian Harrison, a 94-year-old Trappist monk. My WSHS sophomore World History class had taken a field trip there in 1962, and I was curious how it might have changed.
The trip had a few mishaps before I arrived, including a confused GPS in my car that had me meandering in circles in Ava, being stopped for speeding by a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper, walking in the weeds because the lane to the monastery had just been oiled, which resulted in my pantlegs covered with beggars’ lice, and I had to park my car in a ditch on a lonely country road, which gave me an uneasy feeling after everything else that had occurred that day.
 
Although I arrived late, Father Cyprian could not have been more cordial. In fact, he hardly seemed ninety-four. Articulate, insightful, and joyful are adjectives that describe him better than his age. He ushered me into the library and we began our conversation.
 
When my class visited in 1962, we were told Assumption Abbey was a Trappist monastery, but now, Assumption Abbey is a Cistercian rather than a Trappist monastery. The Trappists and Cistercians are separate but related orders within the Catholic Church. About this distinction, Father Cyprian provided a historic background, nearly verbatim, as shown on the Abbey’s website: “The Cistercian Order was established in France near Dijon in 1098 by a group of Benedictine monks who wanted to live Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries in its fullness. This means a life marked by separation from worldly affairs and a quietness that allows the monks or nuns to give themselves more freely to lectio [sacred reading] and prayer, praise and worship, and contemplation . . ..” 
 
The Trappists originated as a reform movement within the Cistercian order seeking a stricter observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict, and became a separate order in 1892. Because the movement started at La Trappe Abbey in France, the Order has generally been referred to by its unofficial name, Trappists. The official name is the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. 
 
The Trappists arrived in Douglas County in 1950 from the New Melleray Abbey in Iowa, when Joseph B. Pierson, an international newspaper editor associated with the Chicago Tribune, and his wife Josephine donated 3,480 acres to the Order. The real estate transfer came with contingencies, including a provision that the property was to be used for a monastery. I have not seen the deed, but my impression is the title could revert to the original owners if the property was otherwise used. 
 
Father Cyprian came to Ascension Abbey in 1965. Unlike some brothers, he is also a Catholic priest, which is why he is referred to as “Father.” Being a priest is not a prerequisite to becoming a monk.
I asked him how he decided to become a priest. Interestingly, the notion first came to him in grade school. A new priest came to his Catholic school and asked the class how many were going to be priests? Hands went up, including Cyprian’s. He said, “I think the idea stuck with me.” As time passed, he came to understand entering the seminary would provide an educational opportunity—four years of high school and two years of college.
 
Not long after World War II, he says he felt conflicted and was looking for purpose in his life and “tagged along” with some seminary classmates to visit New Melleray Abbey located near Dubuque. He decided to explore whether the monastic life would provide the fulfillment for which he was searching. 
 
After six months as a postulant in the monastery—a trial period to gauge his suitability—where he studied religious texts and philosophy, he became a novice, still with no permanent commitment. According to the New Melleray Abbey website, a novice receives a white tunic, scapular, and cloth cincture. 
 
After six years Father Cyprian took his permanent vows and received the black scapular of a professed monk and a leather cincture to replace the cloth one. From the contentment and happiness evident in his demeanor, his vocation appears to have served him well. 
 
We talked about a wide range of topics, including Thomas Merton, the widely-read Trappist author, and the New Testament precept of the Great Commission—teaching all nations and baptizing them. Regarding the latter, he says the life of a monk, separated from society, is prayerful and contemplative and not evangelical, but with the power of prayer it is supportive of those on the front lines. 
 
While we were talking, a bell rang in the distance, and Father Cyprian said, “Our conversation will have to be continued.” The bell signaled the third-hour of the day prayer. He left the room and returned a short while later and we continued our conversation.
 
We discussed the typical day of a monk, which is detailed on the Abbey’s website:
    • 3:15 Rise, the Office of Vigils
    • 6:30 Morning Prayer and Eucharist
    • 9:00 Mid-Morning Prayer, Work till 11:30
    • 11:45 Mid-Day Prayer, Dinner in common, Dishes
    • 2:00 Mid-Afternoon Prayer, Work till 4:30
    • 5:45 Evening Prayer, Meditation
    • 7:45 Compline and Retire
[On Sundays, there is no work and periods of personal time are available.] 
As to a monk’s diet, I have read that Trappists avoid eating “flesh meats.” Father Cyprian described the tradition as “not eating the flesh of four-footed animals.” He smiled when he recalled another monk saying that this did not include fish, “because fish didn’t have feet.” Milk and eggs are permitted.
 
Monasteries are self-supporting, and manual labor is a significant aspect of the Rule of Saint
 
Benedict. When the Trappists arrived in 1950, and for a quarter-century, they made concrete blocks from the sand and gravel in Bryant Creek on the property. The concrete blocks made by the monks were used in the construction of the monastery.
 
Father Cyprian says with the growing competition in the construction industry, the monks looked for an alternative means of support. With encouragement from the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery near Louisville, Kentucky, which makes bourbon fruitcakes, Assumption Abbey started making and selling fruitcakes, with their own special recipe.
 
For their recipe, they received assistance from Chef Jean-Pierre Augé, who once was employed by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The process seems quite elaborate. The fruit is soaked in Burgundy wine before baking, and afterwards injected with rum. I purchased a fruitcake, and when the tin cannister is opened, the aroma is vividly fragrant. 
 
The fruitcake business is good. Assumption Abbey can sell as many as 30,000 units a year internationally, and they are even available from the fancy Williams Sonoma catalogue.
 
By the turn of the last century, however, fundamental changes were coming. The monks were getting older and their numbers dwindled. Moreover, the Trappist General Chapter voted to close Assumption Abbey’s novitiate, which meant it could no longer initiate replacements. The Trappist monks hoped—no doubt, prayed—for the survival of the Abbey. Father Cyprian, said, “We didn’t want to curl up and die.” (quotation from Michael Boyink’s 2019 article the Douglas County Herald)
 
Providentially, perhaps, an abbot and a monk from a Cistercian monastery in Vietnam visited Assumption Abbey. Incidentally, I was surprised to learn there are nine monasteries in Vietnam, and some have reached capacity. This visitation proved to be a turning point toward the transition of the venerable monastery in Douglas County, from Trappist to Cistercian. 
 
After numerous meetings and discussions between the American and the Vietnamese monks, a trial period was established in 2013. “A gradual number of Vietnamese monks would come and live as guests [at Assumption Abbey]. If both sides were satisfied after some years that the results were good, then there would be a formal transfer. The American Trappists would live on as guests in the newly established Vietnamese community here.” (quotation from the Abbey website)
 
Notwithstanding some minor growing pains over the differences in Eastern and Western dietary preferences, the trial was successful. On Assumption Day (the Catholic feast day celebrating the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to Heaven), August 15, 2019, the transfer was confirmed with a ceremony at the Abbey.
 
The real estate, fixtures, personal property, and fruitcake business were freely given away, but the Assumption Abbey name remains, with different ownership. In the interest of survival, Father Cyprian says, it was a “Hail Mary,” but he used it in the sense of a longshot football pass, and not as a rosary prayer. 
 
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