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

A RETREAT AT LA TRAPPE.
ment. Dom Augustin abandoned these and restored the constitutions in their entirety. The difference gave rise to two, or
rather three, branches of the order, two of which followed the
form of government laid down by De Ranc6, and the third that
of the Cistercian constitutions pure and simple. Happily our
Holy Father, Leo XIII., now gloriously reigning, has brought
about the fusion of these branches into one harmonious and
powerful whole.
The growth of the order during the present century has
been, as I have said, phenomenal. The nineteenth century is
not usually considered an age of severe mortification, nor might
it be thought that any rule of life could survive fourteen centuries and still retain its popularity. Yet, while at the fall of
Napoleon the order was almost extinct, it has in the seventy
succeeding years grown to a membership (including Trappist
nuns) of over three thousand, living in some fifty-five abbeys
and priories. The greater number of these are in France and
Germany, but there are two in Ireland, two in England, two in
Italy, one in Turkey, one in Algiers, two in the United States
(Gethsemane, in Kentucky, and New Melleray, in Iowa), and two
in Canada. These last are Little Clairvaux, at Tracadie in Nova
Scotia, founded in I814, and that at Oka. To these are shortly to be added two new foundations: that at Lake St. John
already referred to, and one at St. Norbert in Manitoba, an
offshoot from the Abbey of Bellefontaine in France.
But what is this "rule" so often referred to? Time will
not permit of a lengthy description of it, but a short summary
cannot prove otherwise than interesting. Probably the most
striking feature of the life is the silence, which is absolute and
perpetual. The idea of this is very beautiful. The voices of
the monks are put to one use, and one only, that of prayer!
How little need they fear that terrible account of "every idle
word" that we shall all one day be called on to render.
There are, of course, some necessary exceptions to the rule
of silence, but they are strictly limited. The abbot, prior, and
sub-prior are allowed to speak and may be spoken to by all,
but none of the monks may speak to each other; when some
such communication becomes absolutely necessary, the two monks
who require to speak go before one of the superiors and communicate the desired message through him. It might be thought
that while at work in the fields or in the outbuildings the exchange of words connected with the work on hand would be a
matter of constant necessity, but such is not the case. While
I894.]
871