l HE ABBOT OF GETHSEMANI.
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"C SAX INTRANTIBUS;"-
j' '"Peace to all who enter."
These are the words,
written in white letters
above the gate of the porter's lodge,
which greet the eye of the visitor to
the Abbey of Gethsemani.
On the 26th of October, i848, a band
of monks of the Order of Our Lady of
La Trappe, left the Abbey of Melleray,
near Nantes, on the Lower Loire,
France, and turned their faces towards
the new world. This band was coin-
posed of forty religious, sixteen choir
fathers, and twenty-four lay brothers.
The crowded condition of the French
Abbey necessitated this movement, for
room was so scarce that postulants
could not be received. On May 26th
of the same year, Rev. Father D.
Maxime, Abbot of Melleray, had com-
missioned two of his
flock to go to the
United States for the
purpose of selecting
'a site for a new mon-
astery. With the as-
sistance of Mgr.
Flaget, then Bishop
of Louisville, these
men contracted for
,i ,zoo acres of land
belonging to the Sis-
ters of Loretto, in
Nelson County, the
price paild being
20,000 francs
(5,0oo).
Father Maria Eutropius, Prior of
the Abbey of Melleray, was given
charge over the bandl of pioneers. A
detailed account of their eventful jour-
ney wolul make a small volume. They
set sail from Havre on the second day
of November, i848,and arrived in New
Orleans on the sixteenth of December.
Proceeding by steamboat, they came
to Louisville ten days later, and the
fifty miles which yet lay before them
were accomplished in three dray
wagons. When their new home was
reached, they found nothing but a few
cabins gathered together on the de-
clivity of a hill. These they occupied
with grateful hearts, and Gethseniani
was founded.
The growth of the order in America
was steady and rapid. One by one the
old buildings were torn down and re-
THE CIIAI'I'ER ROOM.
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FRANK LESLIE'S POPULAR MONTHLY.
Trappists, their Superior, Father
Eutropius, went to Rome to recom-
mend the new colony to the fatherly
protection of the Pope. The Sover-
eign Pontiff received him graciously,
and placed in his hands a rescript bear-
ing date of July 21, i850, by which the
new monastery, before only a priory,
was raised to the dignity of an Abbey.
Upon his return, Father Eutropius was
elected first Abbot of Gethsemani.
Here he labored for nine years, when
ill-health caused him to return to
France, and to resign his office. Father
M. Benedict succeeded him as Abbot
in I86i. Father Benedict was, per-
haps, the most
THE DORMITORY.
austere Abbot that
Gethsemani ever had.
The rigid rules of the
order were carried'
out to the letter dur-
ing his administra-
tion. But for all that
he was greatly loved,
and his resignation
in i889 was received
with sincere regret
by all the brother-
hood. The third Ab-
bot of the Order was
Father M. Edward,
elected in i890. Serv-
ing in this capacity
226
THE ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI.
for Eve years, poor health drove him
to France, whence he tendered his
resignation.
The fourth and present Abbot of
Gethsemani, Father M. Obrecht, was
elected in 1898.
Leaving Louisville any morning
about eight-thirty, a two hours run
over the Louisville Nashville Rail-
road will bring you to the station of
Gethsemani. Here you will find a dis-
tillery, a store, and a few cottages. A
narrow dirt road winds over a hill
towards the north. Following this
road for a mile and a half-a delight-
ful walk-you will arrive at the Abbey
of Gethsemani. A magnificent avenue
of elms, planted in double rows, leads
up to the porter's lodge. These trees
are eighty-six in number, and were
brought from France by the first colo-
nists, fifty-three years ago. The ave-
nue formed by them is four hundred
and forty-five feet long, and eighty-six
Abbot Edward died the seventh of March,
while this article was being written.-AUTHOR.
feet wide. Over the gate to which we
have come, in a niche, is a life-size
statue of the Virgin, with the Infant;
227
FRANK LESLIE'S POPULAR MONTHLY.
below these figures are the words
already quoted, "Pax Intrantibus." The
gate is kept closed and locked. A wire
hangs down from a hole high up in
the shut gate, with a small wooden
cross fastened to its end. Pull this
gently, and the silvery notes of a bell
are heard, quickly followed by the
shuffling of feet, and the door is
opened. Before you stands a brown-
cowled figure, who greets you with the
words "Deo Gratias," or "Benedicat."
You enter, and are shown to a wait-
ing room on the left, where mementoes
of the Abbey may be obtained at a
small price. Your business and your
name are ascertained by the
brother who admitted you, who
t straightway seeks the Superior
with this information. He re-
0 turns very soon, and beckons
you to follow. Leaving the
A waiting room, you come to two
more gates, opening into the
first court. A placard upon the
brick walls bears this inscrip-
tion, in bold letters: " Women
are forbidden under pain of ex-
communication to enter these
gates."
\ This first court is practically
a flower garden, with palms and
t plants and shrubs artistically
f arranged. At one side are two
greenhouses, where the flowers
are preserved in winter. In the
center of the court is a shrine
enclosing a life-size statue of the
Virgin. In the trellis-work sur-
rounding this shrine these
words are set, in large letters:
"DULCIS VIRGO MARIA
SALVE." Crossing the court
you ascend eight large stone
D steps, and enter the monastery
i proper.
Once within the bare hallway
a feeling of awe descends upon
[ you, for it is evident that you
are out of the world. The hal
is devoid of ornament. On the
walls are framed mottoes, taken
from the Scriptures, and from
the writings of the Saints. Here
is one of the more prominent:
"If you desire to enter here,
leave your body at the door. Here
is space only for your soul." The
room at the left is the reception room,
furnished with two tables and a
228
THE ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI.
few chairs, and here the guest-
master hears what you have to
say. If you are there for an hour to
look over the place, he will courteously
give you his time and attention. If
you come as a guest to spend a few
days, he will show you to a
room and minister to your
needs.
Upon the wall of the recep-
tion room is hung a painting of
the Magdalene, by Van Dyck.
This work of art is nearly three
hundred years old, and was a
gift to the monastery from a
Mrs. Barron, of Baltimore. It
was brought from France dur-
ing the troublous times of the
Revolution, and is now valued
at several thousand dollars.
Upon a small side table lies a
ponderous volume full three
feet long, eighteen inches wide
and four inches thick. Opening
this, we find the entire Psalms
in Latin, done by hand in differ-
ent colored inks. It was the
life work of one of the brothers
at the Abbey, and was bound
by the monks, who possess a
bookbinding establishment. On
the ground floor of this wing are
the rooms of the Abbot, Prior
and Sub-Prior, and rooms for
postulants seeking admission
into the order. Leaving the
reception room and coming X
into the hall again, two broad,
high doors admit us into a clois-
ter, running the entire length of
the building. The walls are
hung with pictures of saints, of
Christ on the cross, and of the
Virgin. Another door leads us
to a latticed corridor, where we
can see the second court, plant-
ed as a vineyard, with a cistern in the
center. Along the walls of the corridor
are similar pictures, and an occasional
niche reveals the bust of Pope Leo
XIII. or of some bishop. The cor-
ridor terminates at a door giving en-
trance to the chapel of the monks.
Within the church you are impressed
strangely with a sense of mystery and
silence. The church is built in the
form of a cross. At the head of the
cross is the altar, glowing with its mul-
titude of tapers. Before the altar a
hanging censer burns continuously. In
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FRANK LESLIE'S POPULAR MONTHLY.
front of this censer three ropes hang
down nearly to the floor. These ropes
are connected with sweet-toned bells
far overhead, which are rung during
services. The lower part of the cross
forms the monks' choir, where the
brotherhood gather seven times a
day to perform their religious rites.
These seven services are, respectively:
Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None,
Vespers and Compline. Two of these
are often sung together. The arms
of the cross are supplied with plain
wooden benches, where visitors may
sit. The church is built in the Gothic
style, and is very beautiful and impos-
ing. It is so arranged as to form two
chapels; one for the community and
one for the laity. It has fourteen
altars, all of which are of stone, but
two, which are of wood.
From the church we come to the
chapter room, which adjoins it. Here
the holy Rule-by which the monks
live-is explained by the Superior
every morning. Here, also the
"Culpa," or public accusation of
faults is made, and due penance
imposed. At one end of the room
is a kind of dais, with the seats
of the Abbot, Prior and Sub-
Prior. At the other end are the con-
fessionals. Here, too, we are shown
the wooden cross which came over
with the first band of Trappists from
France. It is in this room that the
monk spends all of his time not em-
ployed in manual labor, or prayer or
sleep. A narrow stairway conducts us
to the common dormitory of the
monks. The beds are separated by
partitions, forming cells six feet four
inches long, five feet nine inches wide,
and six feet high. The bed is a straw
mattress placed on a few boards, with
one comfort for covering. This room
is not heated even in the most rigor-
ous weather.
On this same floor are the library,
tailor shop and infirmary. In this in-
firmary the old, the feeble and the sick
are quartered, and for their benefit
mass is celebrated here every morn-
ing at four o'clock. The refectory is
on the ground floor of the east wing of
the building, and is a room seventy.
three feet long and twenty-nine feet
wide. In it are five wooden tables.
Four of these are for the choir relig-
ious and lay brothers, while the fifth
is placed upon a platform at one end
230
THE ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI.
of the room, where the Abbot, Prior
and Sub-Prior sit. Though apart
from the rest of the table, their fare
is the same as the others. They all
sit upon stools, formed of a piece of
plank nailed to two uprights. Their
fork and spoon are of wood, and their
Brown bread and lintels compose his
food. During Lent one meal a day of
bread and water sustains life. Peanuts
are sometimes served as dessert.
At the back of the church, sur-
rounded by a high brick wall, is God's
Acre, the last resting place of the Trap-
THE CALVARY.
knife is of the poorest quality. The pist monk. To this solemn spot each
plates are of tin, and a brown stone member of the community directs his
pitcher about ten inches tall sits before steps once a day, to meditate on the
each brother. In this is water, and vanities of the world, and to pray for
on feast days, cider. On one side of his comrades who have gone before.
the room is a pulpit, which a reader On our way to this graveyard we pass
occupies during the meal. The Trap- a grotto, a fac-simile of the Grotto of
pist never eats meat, fish or eggs. Lourdes, in France, where the Holy
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FRANK LESLIE'S POPULAR MONTHLY.
Virgin appeared to St. Bernadette
and said: "I am the Immaculate Con-
ception." Here we see the figures of
the saint and Virgin. The graves are
made in-svmmetrical rows, and in such
a way as to leave a space between each
grave for another. So when a line of
graves is made, they start over again,
digging new ones between the old
mounds. In this way a brother always
knows where his resting-place is going
to be, to the exact spot. And to this
custom is due, perhaps, the foolish
superstition that each day the monks
take a shovelful of dirt out of their
own graves. Each grave is covered
with ivy; otherwise the ground is bare.
At the head of each grave stands a
small, black iron cross, with the name
of the departed brother and the date
of his death on it, in plain white let-
ters. Priests are buried with their
head at the feet of the lay brothers, so
that even in death they can overlook
their flock. No coffi