St. Joseph's Abbey

St. Joseph Abbey is a monastery of the Catholic Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.), popularly known as the "Trappists", located in Spencer, Massachusetts.

The monastery became known internationally as the origin of the Centering Prayer movement in modern Catholicism and Christianity, whose leading proponents were monks at the monastery: Fr. William Meninger, Fr. M. Basil Pennington and Fr. Thomas Keating.

St Joseph's Abbey is supported in part by its production of Trappist Preserves, commercially sold jams and jellies.

St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts was settled in 1950 by Belgian and French Trappist monks from Nova Scotia and Rhode Island. In the rustic hills of central New England, the monks at Spencer follow a contemplative way of life.

In 1954, shortly after their arrival in Spencer, a small stove-top batch of mint jelly was made by the monks with the great excess of mint from the herb garden. Since monastic austerity at that time precluded the jelly from being served to the monks at meals, it was sold at the Porter's Lodge. The response was highly encouraging. Other varieties were quickly tried, and soon jelly-making proved to be a successful and compatible monastic industry which would contribute to the monks' self-support. In these traditions, Trappist Preserves came into being.

External links

[http://www.spencerabbey.org/index.html Website for St. Joseph's Abbey] . [http://www.monasterygreetings.com/info_tradition.asp Website for Trappist Preserves]