A Retreat at La Trappe [pp. 862-883]

A RETREAT AT LA TRAPPE.
one a year later in the handsome stone building I'have just
described. And it is in the hope that some among my readers
may be induced to share that happiness that I have essayed a
description of my experiences.
Before, however, attempting to describe those days of holy
quiet, let me say a few words respecting the order whose guest
I was.
Many are the errors passing current even among wellinformed Catholics regarding the life at La Trappe, and of
these one, perhaps, of the commonest is the idea that the
Trappist rule is a novelty, tolerated indeed by the church, but,
owing to its extreme severity, refused the formal approval of
the ecclesiastical authorities. Nothing could be further from
the truth. The rule followed by the Trappists is the oldest of
all rules-first both in time and excellence, the model of every
religious legislator, the rule laid down for his followers by St.
Benedict at Monte Casino nearly fourteen hundred years ago.
The visitor to Oka, at the end of the nineteenth century, sees
realized before his eyes the life of Saint Benedict and his companions at the beginning of the sixth. How vividly does this
thought bring home to us the lasting good that, under the
grace of God, one man may accomplish-Saint Benedict after
fourteen centuries still living in his works! Who shall be able
to calculate the extent of sanctity and self-mortification, of
glory to God and peace to men, born of his rule during the
long course of fourteen centuries?
For the benefit of those of my readers who may be unfamiliar with the history of monastic institutions, I may perhaps
be here permitted a short historical digression. The monastic
life, as is well known, is at least as old as Christianity, but for
the first five centuries of the church such congregations of cenobites as existed were without fixed rules, were practically mere
voluntary segregations of pious laymen, and were subject to
very great fluctuations both in numbers and fervor. Saint Benedict, through the instrumentality of his famous "rule," drafted
at Monte Casino, in Italy, in 529, wrought so radical a change
in monastic institutions, and placed them on so firm and satisfactory a basis, as to deserve to be considered the founder of
monasticism. But time too often dulls the first fervor of a religious community. Saint Robert, when, in I098, he became
Abbot of Molesme, found the Benedictines, excellent men it is
true, but interpreting their rule in a milder sense and living a
life much less mortified and austere than that of the companions
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[Mar.,