Vigils Reading – Mass for 175 years

An excerpt from Gethsemani Abbey: Its Foundation

by Dom Eutropius Proust

We left Louisville on the twentieth of December, and were to arrive that evening at Bardstown. Here we were to call on the Jesuit Fathers, who conducted the College of St. Joseph, and to whom we had a letter of introduction from Mgr. Flaget. We should arrive by daylight at Bardstown, which was twelve miles from Gethsemani; but the unfavorable weather delayed us very much, and we were yet nine miles from the town, when a dark and dreary night set in. We did not stop to take any nourishment by the wayside, but refreshed ourselves as best we could, in the wagons, with bread, cheese and fruit. The good God supplied the drink. The rain did not cease to fall abundantly the entire day, so that, alighting from the wagons, we resembled water rats that came out of the river.

We arrived at eleven o’clock. The streets were so full of water and mud that we were knee-deep therein. We went directly to St. Joseph’s College…Our difficulty was to find the entrance, for one could not see a yard ahead. Taking with me two Irish religious, we made a circuit of the house to find the entrance…We kept on seeking and groping until we succeeded in finding the door. We knocked again and again, but no answer. Not knowing what to do, we called aloud together the word “Trappist.” In this we were successful. As soon as the good fathers heard that word they opened the windows. I told them who we were, where we were going, and that I had a letter of introduction to them from Mgr. Flaget, asking them to give us lodging for the night. In an instant three or four of the fathers arose, with as many brothers, and the doors were opened for us. A good fire was made in the hall, and the brothers prepared for us something to eat. At the end of half an hour we were led into the refectory, where we took at the same time our breakfast, dinner and supper.

The following day, having heard Holy Mass and received Holy Communion, our conductors arrived, with a new wagon, borrowed by them at Bardstown. After thanking our hosts for their kind hospitality, we installed ourselves in the wagons and pursued our way to Gethsemani. About two o’clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the entrance of a large forest, after passing the little village of New Haven on the Nashville Railroad. We were informed that this was the beginning of our property. It is difficult to express the feelings that this announcement produced in our souls. I had the wagons stop. Falling on ourknees we recited a “Pater and Ave” to salute the good guardian angels of Gethsemani; and we kissed the earth soon to be watered by our sweat and even by our tears. We re-entered our wagons and continued our journey through the woods for three-quarters of an hour. Our hearts swelled with emotion. With what feelings of joy and admiration, did we not contemplate these magnificent woods. We were astonished in finding ourselves so rich, after having made the vow of poverty…We climbed a hill on which are situated wooden cottages, declining with age. We were going to find at last the crib of our Divine Saviour at Bethlehem. Such, too, were the thoughts of all our religious. They were in transports of joy in beholding these ten or twelve cottages, thrown here and there on the sloping hillside, facing the sun. These composed the entire monastery of Gethsemani.

We arrived at Gethsemani on the twenty-first of December, at two P.M., feast of St. Thomas, Apostle. 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…Such were ouroccupations during these first days.

4 Dom Eutropius Proust. Gethsemani Abbey: Its Foundation. Messenger Magazine, 1898. (Complete manuscript available in CSQ 2021).