Vigils Reading – 175 year Anniversary

GETHSEMANI ABBEY:

ITS FOUNDATION

From the account of Dom Eutropius Proust

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We arrived at Gethsemani on the twenty-first of December, at two P.M.

… The cold was excessive, and all we could do the first days was to gather

firewood in the forest with which to warm ourselves. We also collected or

shucked a field of corn that had remained. In the mornings and evenings we

shelled the corn in the workshop, while one of the brothers, in a loud voice, read

a spiritual book. Such were our occupations during these first days.

We improvised a dormitory, refectory, chapter-room… choosing for this

purpose the most suitable places. The old cabins were torn down to make room

for a kitchen, adjoining the refectory. But the kitchen was so exposed to the

weather that, when it rained, all our dishes were not sufficient to collect the

water… The little chapel used by the Sisters of Loretto served us for a church,

but, as a great number of people flocked to our offices, attracted by the novelty

of the religious ceremonies, which, notwithstanding our poverty, we conducted

with great solemnity, our chapel was much too small. We were obliged to

enlarge it one-half, which we did, with the debris of the old cabins…

It is impossible to describe the impression produced on these sylvan

inhabitants on seeing our religious ceremonies and hearing for the first time the

solemn and majestic chant of La Trappe. At the approach of grand feasts, the

rumor spread far that on that day the Trappists of Gethsemani would have

beautiful ceremonies, a thing which generally brought vast assemblies… The

people came from Bardstown and neighboring villages to see us and satisfy

themselves of that which had been said in the journals concerning those

extraordinary solitaries of Gethsemani…

One of the salutary effects that our presence created was the elevation of

the negro-slave in his own estimation… These unfortunate slaves were

astonished to see priests in the morning at the altar, and sometimes later at the

plough…devoted to all kinds of agricultural work. In thus seeing men who were

venerated in their country, work like themselves, they are honored before their

own eyes, and the humble occupation of labor is elevated. They realized at last

that manual labor does not degrade, nor work enslave the tiller of the soil.

Thus, from the commencement, we gained the good will of all our

neighbors… There was not, even amongst the Protestant ministers themselves,

a single one who did not show us some marks of good will… “These are the good

citizens, ” they would say, “who have just come from Europe. They are French,

who bring us excellent methods of farming. They are going to effect much good

in our country. It is not necessary to disturb them; but on the contrary to hold

them in high esteem.”… So you see that in a short time Gethsemani put on a

new aspect

Dom Eutropius Proust. Gethsemani Abbey: Its Foundation. Messenger Magazine, 1898. (Complete manuscript

available in CSQ 2021).11