Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
TRAPPISTS
TRAPPISTS. Irish monks, following the rules established by St. Benedict in 580 A.D., who generations later settled southeast of Dubuque. As part of his efforts to encourage the Catholic settlement of the Midwest, Bishop Mathias LORAS traveled to Ireland and to the monastery in County Waterford.
The monastery was called "Melleray on the Mount." "Melleray" a name derived from "mel," a word for honey, suggested the site was a place of honey. The monks belonged to the Trappist Order were among the many people suffering the famine of 1847. Suffering persecution for seven hundred years, the monks found promise Loras' description of a new land with so many Irish settlers nearby. Sixteen monks left "Melleray on the Mount" on July 16, 1849. Six died of CHOLERA as they journeyed north on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
The first ordination to the priesthood was held at the New Melleray Trappist Monastery on April I, 1933. Frater Pius Hanley, OCSO, was ordained by Archbishop Francis J.L. BECKMAN. Following WORLD WAR II] the number of monks at the monastery rose substantially from an estimated twenty to over one hundred.
For most of their time in Iowa, the Trappists supplied their needs by farming. As their numbers dwindled and average age increased, they began looking for other ways of supporting themselves. The monks began making coffins in 2001 to pay the bills on the monastery’s 3,000-plus acre farm. They sold 190 their first year and in 2003 sales topped 700. Prices ranged from $695 for a simple pine box to $1,795 for the premium black walnut model that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles picked out for himself in a “pre-need” order.
Trappists regard death as sacred and beautiful, and they maintain a continuing awareness of death as a part of life not to be feared. “Keep death before one’s eyes daily,” reads one of the strictures of the Rule of Saint Benedict, by which the monks lead their lives. Building caskets is certainly one way to fulfill that mandate.
The monks, however, aren’t buried in caskets. They are lowered into the ground on an uncovered wooden platform. (Photo Courtesy: http://www.dubuquepostcards.com)
