Is Nashotah House Seminary haunted by a monk in black?

Newspaper articles dating back to 1902 detail various ghost sightings and supernatural experiences at Nashotah House Seminary [Anglican], 2777 MIssion Road.

Most of them recount the history of the "Black Monk," a priest named Daniel Pope who was murdered by his wife in 1852 to accommodate an affair she was having with another man. But his death was ruled a suicide and considered a repugnant sin, so Pope's body was not allowed to buried in the consecrated grounds of the cemetery at Our Lady of Spring Bank Cistercian, where he served.

Nashotah House was nearby, but Pope was not allowed to be buried in hallowed ground there either. His tombstone stands to this day, but is isolated from the other graves.

On her deathbed, the legend goes, Pope's wife confessed to her crime. The priests, horrified at their mistake, exhumed Pope's grave — but found his casket empty.

Now, almost 170 years later, Pope's ghost is said to appear every Halloween and wander the cemetery in search of what should have been his final resting place.

continue at JS

'Powerhouse of prayer:' Millennials are drawn to monastic life in Prairie du Sac; CapTimes profiles Cistercian nuns

PRAIRIE DU SAC — Sister Christina Marie, 33, was an entomologist. Sister Mary Benedicta, 36, studied to be an aeronautical engineer. And Sister Mary Bede, 30, intended to become a professional violinist.

They left those lives to become nuns, cloistered together at Valley of Our Lady Monastery in a small village in Sauk County. It’s home to a Cistercian order, the only Catholic convent of its kind in the country.

In four weeks, Erin Wells, 24, heads there, too.

She’ll come from her parents' house in Columbus, Ohio, after earning a degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University. She’ll sell her car, get rid of most of her possessions and bring only a few things, including a Bible and her rosary.

“I went to college thinking I was going to be an engineer, work for Honda and travel to Japan all the time,” she said, “and be rich and write a book and be on the New York Times best-seller list.”

Now Wells is set to be part of an ancient tradition of communal religious life known as contemplative monasticism. She will live simply, becoming singularly focused on prayer, talking and listening to God without distraction.

continue at The Cap Times

Really good coverage here.  Go check it out.

HT FE

Dad29: A Chant Master Has Died

We note in sadness:

Cistercian Father Ralph March, a founding member of the CMAA, died on February 6 at the age of 93

The obit is filled with landmarks, by the way.

...he was ordained a priest in the Abbey of Zirc by Jozsef Mindszenty,...He joined fellow Cistercians exiled from Hungary in the Cistercian monastery of Spring Bank in Wisconsin. He taught at Marquette University until the foundation of the University of Dallas, where he served on the first faculty in 1956...At the invitation of the cardinal-archbishop of Cologne, Fr. Ralph became the music director ("Domkapellmeister") of the city's monumental cathedral, a post he held for ten years...

We had the occasion to hear Fr. March's choirs twice; once at St Anthony's/Milwaukee, and once at the U of Dallas. His rendition of Chant is definitive. 

Dad29

.... remember when we had Cistercians in Wisconsin?

Northern California Cistercians rebuild monastery with help of Sierra Nevada Brewery

Go to watch the video at FoxNews Hmm, I can't get the embed to work, disappointing.

If you can't watch the video, HuffPo picked up the AP story here.

I remember when we had a thriving community of Cistercian monks...

Sierra Nevada is a good brewery too.  I hope I can pick some up somewhere around here.  ..... ideally the monks would make it themselves, but it's still a good project. 

WOW! Plans for new Cistercian monestary in Wisconsin!

Contemplatives save the world; not by their own power, but by the grace of God.  If America will be saved, it will be by the power of prayer.  This.Is.Amazing.

Matthew Alderman reports on the New Liturgical Movement:

One of the most exciting new projects to come into the firm during this time is a new design for a monastery in Wisconsin. It will be the new home of the nuns of Valley of Our Lady Monastery. It has been a great pleasure to be a member of the design team working on this project.

Alderman also designed the new St. Paul's Student Center in Madison.  I found out at the recent Knights of Divine Mercy that the Student Center had to be scaled back not because of funding, but because the city council rejected such a large and beautiful building intruding on the existing campus "architecture." 

This is also the order that was disenfranchised in a recent state court election.   They are Cistercian like the Laser Monks were.  I think at least one of the Laser Monk priests was assigned here to serve the sisters.  Here's a video of the nuns chanting.  Fr. Z reported a while back that they celebrate ad orientem, not to mention their vocations were booming.  There was I think other videos of the sisters that the LaserMonks took down after their closure. They are well known for sustaining themselves by making altar bread.

Back to the article, currently the sisters reside in Prairie du Sac, in the Diocese of Madison.  It doesn't say where exactly the new site is, but their website gives us this tidbit:

The property for the new monastery is located in South-Western Wisconsin in the Diocese of Madison. These 229 acres in rural Iowa County are part of the Driftless Area, a region geologically renowned for being consistently missed by advancing glaciers over the millennia. As a result of this freedom from glaciation, the diverse and dramatic terrain preserves much of the topography of Wisconsin prior to the Glacial Period. The famous bluffs, rock outcroppings, caves and coulees boast a history of over 100 million years and provide a refuge for a rare community of plants and wildlife.

That would be a little southwest of their current site.  Interesting, I drove past here after Knights of Divine Mercy last Friday without even realizing the sisters location.  

And get this:

One of the largest projects undertaken by the firm in recent years, it is, to my knowledge, the first new traditional ecclesiastical project to draw on the simplicity and balance of Cistercian monastic architecture, and the first ever undertaken in the United States.

Save the monasteries, save the world. 

Read the whole article over at New Liturgical Movement

The sisters also have details over at their website(navigation is a little quirky).

They also have a photo gallery online of their visit to the new site.

Let's Help Them!

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A few Cistercian items stay in the state

I was glad to hear that some private donors stepped forward to purchase some of the Cisterican vestments during the auction and keep them in the area.

MJS reporting Laser Monks fold printer supply business, abbey, Terry Nelson quoted

The abbey, now all but empty, is listed for sale at $2.6 million.

They were dubbed the Millionaire Monks, a small monastic community in rural Wisconsin feted around the world for its wildly successful Internet business selling laser printer inks and toners.

As recently as 2009, the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank was projecting annual sales of $3.5 million for its for-profit business, LaserMonks Inc. And their prior and chief executive officer, Father Bernard McCoy, was talking expansion - of both the company and the abbey. [oops]

Today, the monks' 15,000-square-foot home on 500 acres in Sparta is all but empty. They sold off their belongings - everything from furniture and farm equipment to religious artifacts - at an auction last month. And they have put much of their land and buildings up for sale.

LaserMonks ceased operating in the spring, though the abbey has since sold its name and customer list to a California firm.[check it out; lasermonks.com] And the monks have gone their separate ways. McCoy, who was touted as the LaserMonks' marketing genius, is now in Ireland, overseeing a community of nuns, according to a family member. Both she and the monks' lawyer said they did not know how to reach him.  [.... I don't like to be the rumor monger but I understand him to be on a non-voluntary sabbatical at their mother house... I thought that was in Switzerland.]

Attorney Kevin Roop of La Crosse, who represents the abbey, blames increased competition and the downturn in the economy for the liquidation of LaserMonks; and the dissolution of the abbey on the business failure and a dwindling interest in monastic life.

But the monks have a history of failed or attempted business ventures. And now their seemingly sudden change of fortune has raised questions about their business acumen and some say less-than-Spartan lifestyle.

"It's very troubling," said Terry Nelson of Minneapolis, a former Trappist novice who writes about monastic communities on a blog he calls Abbey Roads. "A year ago he (McCoy) was talking about growing vocations, building a new church. . . . And then it's just gone? How can a monastery just disappear?"

The details are not entirely clear, but one significant factor appears to be the abbey's debt. Since 2006, the monks have used their property as collateral to secure $3.1 million in mortgages, including a $1.4 million loan from the Valley of Our Lady Inc., a nearby community of Cistercian nuns, according to records on file with the Monroe County Register of Deeds.

The nuns' superior did not return a telephone call seeking comment. But Bryan Simonson, vice president of Stoddard-based River Bank, which loaned the abbey nearly $1.8 million over that time, said the notes were new loans and refinancings of existing mortgages and lines of credit opened for the monks' business and living expenses over the years, and that a portion of the debt has been paid.

Simonson and Roop declined to say how much the abbey still owes. But the banker said the monks have never defaulted on a loan and that he doesn't expect them to do so now.

"I hold the abbey in the highest regard," Simonson said. "They have a very viable exit strategy, and we do not expect to incur any losses." [... sooooo they did declare bankruptcy though...  I assume they are talking about the Cistercian nuns then...]

continue at Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

National papers are now picking up this story.  Very well done investigation Annysa!  I'll maybe give some more commentary in a few days.  Click the labels below if you are interested in the background.  I bet you will see the NYTes out there pick it up this weekend.

Find a good home for vestments from disbanded Cistercians

The Cistercians of Spring Bank still have items left to be sold off.  They have several nice vestment sets worth taking a look at.  Since they declared bankruptcy, the auctioneer has to make money off of them.  At the discounted price, they are still a good deal.  If you can find a good home for the vestments please do.   Go to auctiongroove.com and search the word "vestments."

It appears there are several other items of interest from the abbey that might be of interest.  The website is a bit hokey, but you should be able to search if you are interested.

PART TWO ~ Spring Bank Monastery, the Spirit Continues.

Our Lady of Spring Bank Abbey disbanding

I posted previously that the Sparta based Laser Monks had declared bankruptcy.  I guess I didn't realize that their order would be completely disbanding.  I found out that they would be selling much of what they had at a garage sale.  I went Saturday with a friend and found out the sale had been going on for two weeks.  Luckily there were still several icons(not originals but photos of icons) left over.  They were priced to sell and I purchased something like 15 of them.

I got a chance to see the chapel, for the first and sadly the last time.  I didn't bring my camera.  The monks are selling everything, and they will be having an estate sale some time in September to divvy up their nearly 500 acre residence.  Several of the monks have already left, and a few are still there to wrap everything up.  One is going to Prairie du Sac to minister to the sisters there.  One to an abbey in Quebec.  I did not pry into more of the details but it is very sad.  The Cistercians have had a presence in Wisconsin for a long time.  But I can confirm the order is disbanding and by the end of the year everyone will be gone.  I'm not sure why nobody else has reported on this for as much press as LaserMonks have gotten through the years.

Oh I forgot to mention, they are disinterring the graves and moving them to another permanent location as well. 

I also don't know why I bought this... or why it exists...

LaxTrib: LaserMonks shuts down; cites economy, competition

SPARTA — LaserMonks has closed. The multimillion dollar ink cartridge business started by monks near Sparta drew national press and was featured in the New York Times.

The decision to dissolve LaserMonks Inc. was based on numerous factors, “with financial performance of the corporation’s business being chief among them,” the corporation’s attorney, Kevin Roop of La Crosse, said Friday.

Roop said the decrease in financial performance can be attributed to many factors, “but the major contributing factors were the downturn in the economy over the last several years and increased competition in online sales of imaging supplies.”

LaserMonks was started in 2001 by the Cistercian Monks of Our Lady of Spring Bank Abbey near Sparta. The monks support themselves and their charitable projects with various ventures. LaserMonks sold products such as ink and toner cartridges online at www.LaserMonks.com and by telephone mail order.

On Friday, its website said LaserMonks is no longer in business and “If you are a customer who was waiting for an order, you will be receiving information by mail.”

Roop said LaserMonks’ assets and liabilities are being identified. Assets will be sold, and the proceeds will be applied toward the liabilities, he said.

LaserMonks’ annual sales grew from $2,000 the first year to $4.5 million, according to a 2008 Associated Press story on the company. By then, it also had started selling some food items and CDs of Gregorian chants. The abbey is nonprofit, and LaserMonks was for-profit, with all net proceeds going to charitable works such as a school in Vietnam that teaches computer skills to children otherwise living on the streets.

Holly Grady, executive director of the Sparta Area Chamber of Commerce, said Friday that she last saw the Rev. Bernard McCoy, who was LaserMonks CEO, in late January. He told her that LaserMonks soon would add a line of baked goods. “He seemed positive about growth,” she said.

Grady estimated the chamber office has received about 50 telephone calls since late February from people around the nation who had been trying unsuccessfully to reach LaserMonks. Some of the callers said they had ordered but not received items from LaserMonks, she said.

Grady said she was surprised the business closed.

Telephone calls and an e-mail from the Tribune to the Cistercian abbey were referred to Roop.

La Crosse Tribune

This is very sad.  Online business is very difficult to predict as competition can blow you out of the water almost instantly.  It sounds like the monks are on communication blackout while bankruptcy proceedings go forth.  I assume since the abbey and the company were separate that they will not lose their home over the affair.  Let us pray for those who Ora et Labora. 

HT: Fr. Michael

Laser Monks troubles

I noted a few weeks ago that LaserMonks.com is now unavailable online.  These monks are located in Sparta, WI and have been featured by such outlets as the National Catholic Register & The New York Times. 

I did some searching and Father Z reported that the website was down as of April 20th.

I found they do appear to have a maintained Facebook page, but even the order's main website for the Abbey Our Lady of Spring Bank is down. 

I do hope everything is okay.  They had been having problems fulfilling orders. 

Trappists monks

This picture is actually from Valley Falls, Rhode Island.  Not sure why Wisconsin has it in their archives.  By the way, I tried searching surrounding states for archive photos of Catholic interest and their historical societies are vastly inferior to Wisconsin's.  They have a great magazine if you want to consider joining. 
Wisconsin Historical Society

Sub Tuum: Details on Cistercian photo

Matt at Badger Catholic runs what has become the web’s premiere source for Catholic news from in and around Wisconsin. [Wow, thank you!] (I'll admit I’m still trying to figure out where the Packers are mentioned in the Creed, but maybe it will be clearer in the new translation.)[Haha, side note folks, leave the Packer gear at home for Mass.  Dress for God during Mass and the Pack during the game.] He’s been very kind about looking in on life here and reporting the bits he thinks might be of interest to his readers.  [I've learned alot following Sub Tuum about the Cistercian way of life.  It ain't as bad as I thought!]

Last week, Badger Catholic ran the photo above showing our original church at Oconomowoc. You’ll notice that the photo shows two monks kneeling in front of the exposed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance on the high altar. This wasn’t a photo from a special occasion. During the early years, the house had several hours each day of Adoration, with two monks taking their place in the church for each rotation, as Church law then required.

The Divine Office at Marienkroon.

The custom of Adoration can be traced to the Dutch monks of Marienkroon, who provided the main body of the community from the early 1930s through the late 1940s and again from the 1960s until the death of the last Dutch Fathers a little more than 20 years ago. Marienkroon was the daughter of the French abbey of Pont Colbert, founded by Fr. Paul Marechal, a member of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and a disciple of St. Peter Julian Eymard[Fr. John Hardon wrote at length on St Peter Julian].

In 1892, after the death of his saintly mentor and after his own proposals for the Blessed Sacrament Fathers to adopt the Rule of St. Benedict being rejected, Fr. Paul, who became Dom Marie-Bernard, founded the Abbey of St. Mary of Pont Colbert near Versailles as an enclosed monastery dedicated to Adoration. The house was incorporated into the Cistercian Order and there were hopes that a Cistercian Congregation of the Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament might evolve. Sadly, this was not to be the case, and the last remnants of those sent to North America to found new houses eventually found a home at Spring Bank after the closing of the monasteries of Val d’Espoir in Canada and Our Lady of Gerowval in Mississippi.

While the hopes for a Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament might be said to have ended here, its monks did have a lasting impact on the character of the house. The Dutch monks’ formation and their tenacity in regard to their identity tipped the balance for the house keeping its contemplative character at more than one point in its history. We also retain several artifacts from our French and Dutch forebears, including at least two chasubles from Pont Colbert and the humeral veil we use on solemnities. In recent years, the custom of Adoration has been somewhat revived, with an optional period of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament being held three afternoons each week before vespers in addition to Benediction on all Sundays and Solemnities.

Sub Tuum

Thanks for posting on this Br. Stephen!

Sub Tuum: Liturgical progress, give it a try!

You don't really notice how much things are changing when it has all been part of the progression of your every day life, but as I was sorting photos today, the differences between the older and newer feast day pictures struck me.

Our worship at Spring Bank was always reverent and remains simple and identifiably Cistercian, contested and vague though that term may be, but these two photos, one from the Canon of the Mass on St. Bernard's Day 2008 and one from the Canon of the Mass at this morning's Conventual Mass for the Feast of the Founders, brought home that we have been fairly busy over the past two-and-a-half years:

St. Bernard's Day, August 2008.

The Feast of the Founders, January 2011.

On January 1, 2009, we moved to ad orientem celebration of all Masses. Last month, we finished the first phase of renovations to our oratory. In between there have been many less dramatic steps, from more frequent choir rehearsals to returning to more traditional vestments to numerous tiny clean-ups to the customary. We are a small house and are far from being a model of the liturgical renewal, but I think what we have done is a testament to the fact that no matter the circumstances in which you find yourself, there are always concrete ways to move forward. It took our priests about two weeks to be comfortable saying Mass ad orientem. We made major improvements in our chapel for very little money by doing the work ourselves and being creative about materials. We sing better because we practiced, which is free.

I think that too many people who would like to do things better fixate on the places with incredible resources and ample personnel and become discouraged. It is far less daunting to look no further than where you are and to begin to think about what could be different that is within your reach. Spring Bank will, most likely, never approach the liturgical and musical heights of our brothers in Austria, but by taking things one step at a time and making changes in manageable chunks, we have made considerable progress in renewing our liturgical life in just over two years. Give it a try.

Sub Tuum

Amen Brother!  Amen!

Cistercian Chapel in Okauchee, WI

circ. 1940.

Wisconsin Historical Society

Okauchee is now part of Oconomowoc, is that correct?

Sub Tuum: Iowa monks make, donate casket for youngest victim in Arizona shooting

CNN is carrying this story on the monks of New Mellary donating a casket for the youngest shooting victim in Arizona. As I said in my last post, these are good men.

By Eric Marrapodi and Kara Devlin

A group of Trappist monks in Iowa have donated a handmade casket to bury 9-year-old Christina Green, the youngest victim in the Saturday attack that killed six and wounded 13 others in Arizona.
Sam Mulgrew, the general manager of Trappist Caskets in Peosta, Iowa, told CNN a family representative of the Greens reached out to the monks at New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque after her death. The custom-made casket arrived in Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday morning.
"We didn't want to send an adult coffin that would be too big, we wanted something just for her," said Mulgrew, who is not a monk but who manages the 11-year-old casket business that is part of the abbey.
The casket, crafted from red oak, was made especially for 9-year-old Christina, Mulgrew said. She died after a gunman opened fire at a constituents event held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in the shooting.
Christina's funeral is scheduled for Thursday in Tucson.
The lid of the casket was inscribed with her name, date of birth and death, and a cross. The family also will receive five small keepsake crosses hewn from the same wood as the casket, Mulgrew said.
Before the casket was sent from the monastery in Iowa to Arizona, the monks gave the casket a special blessing inside their chapel on Tuesday.
The monks are Roman Catholic and are part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. They make and sell custom caskets with "reverence for nature," according to the Trappist Caskets website.
"Along with prayer and study, our casket ministry is an extension of our sacred work. We labor quietly with our hands in support of our life of simplicity," says a statement on the website.
Mulgrew said when a child dies it hits the monks particularly hard. He said they don't like to sell children's caskets; instead, a "child casket fund" they started often covers the costs.

Sub Tuum

Made Fr Z for being a middle man!

Via BadgerCatholic on Twitter I learned from the blog Sub Tuum, of the Cistercian monks at the Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, that the Trappist’s of New Melleray in Iowa made and donated a casket for little Christina Green, killed in Tucson.

Scenes from Christmas at Spring Bank

More great photos at Sub Tuum

Merry Christmas from the Cistercians!

 

Ha!  I couldn't help myself.  If you follow Sub Tuum, which I thoroughly enjoy, you will recall this:

We now have five pig's heads in the freezer, which Fr. Robert plans to turn into a particular Italian treat as well as possibly pulling one out to stuff for the Boar's Head Carol at Christmas.

Go check out the finished ... treat!  

By the way, I see that the Spring Bank oratory is undergoing a renovation.  The first phase is hoped to be completed by Christmas.

And don't forget to support our wonderful Laser Monks.   Many different gift and items for sale to support a solid religious community in our own state in Sparta!  They have been getting a great deal of press lately, I'll have to follow up on that next week while on vacation. 

Laser Monks featured in NCRegister

What does a young Methodist majoring in astrophysics at the Georgia Institute of Technology do for a profession? He could become a Catholic priest, move to a Cistercian abbey and sell inkjet cartridges at a discount. Too far-fetched even to consider? Don’t tell that to Father Bernard McCoy.
In 1984, when Father McCoy was known as Joseph McCoy, he was not content with the anonymous, mechanical...

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Alright, I've been meaning to renew my subscription for a while and a really must do it now.  The Register has been getting better and better.  My problem was always that I'd get the print edition at home and there it would sit under the laptop while I'm out on the blogosphere getting my news.  Great articles, just not enough time.  The one and only paper subscription that I do keep up with is This Rock magazine.  I am definitely a Catholic Answers baby.  Not getting adequate catechesis growing up, this fantastic group nurtured this malnourished heathen giving him a healthy mind and soul. 

Back to the Register, they have a great model in place.  Their blog content is free on the web but their print articles are by subscription only.  It makes a lot of sense as the old media model has crumbled under the weight of technology.  The disadvantage of the subscription model, is that it's probably illegal for me to post those articles here for us Badger Catholics.

Blessed Charles of Austria, ora pro nobis!

Today Spring Bank keeps the Feast of Blessed Charles of Austria, whose intercession we have invoked each week at Benediction for several years. His biography from the Vatican website gives a moving portrait of a man who saw peace and the welfare of his people to be the first duty of a Christian king:

Check out the whole post at Sub Tuum 

I am very happy to hear our Cistercians have a devotion to Blessed Charles.  The last king of Christendom is certainly one of the finest. 

The Blessed Emperor hears Mass (in the old Roman rite)
before attempting to regain his throne in Hungary in 1919

"From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring, renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king!" 

(The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien, Roman Catholic author)


Roman Christendom