September 24, 1950 -- September 24, 2010
60 YEARS!
This month is a significant one for the Trappist monks of Assumption Abbey here in Ava, MO; it's important for us, too, as our Prayer Fraternity is on land we lease from the Trappists.
The Trappists are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the first monks starting the foundation here in the 'hills and hollers' of the Ozarks in southwestern Missouri. As the Anniversary booklet says: "Six monks arrived on September 24, 1950 to begin life in the three-storey fieldstone Swiss chalet house, which Joe Pierson and his sons built during WW II. There was no central heating, no electricity or running water, so the founders had a 'pioneering' winter."
If you go back to our blog for August 19th (Assumption Abbey Celebrates 60 Years), you can read about the official celebration of the event on the Feast of the Assumption, the patronal feast for the Abbey.
To commemorate the actual date of the arrival of the first monks, the Abbey is hosting a first-ever reunion of former members of the Abbey. Fr. Cyprian, the current Superior of the Abbey, had this to say in his letter of invitation:
"Dear Alumni, one and all -- the Lord be with you.
This year completes the 60 year probation time which Joe Pierson included in his contract of donation of this land and original buildings for a monastic foundation.
A good part of the celebration is the acknowledgement that Assumption Abbey and community wouldn't be here now, if it were not for the time and work which so many men have contributed and given of themselves these past 60 years.
As a way of expressing the Thank You all deserve, we are having a once-in-a-lifetime Alumni Reunion."
This two-day event will take place on September 23rd and 24th. As the monks celebrate this important event in their lives, we congratulate them and we ask you to join us in praying in gratitude for the gift they have been to this area for the past 60 years, and pray for God to bless their next 60 years.
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