The Catholic Monastery of the Holy Spirit is a Trappist religious community in Conyers, Georgia, founded in 1944. It was an offshoot of another monastery in Kentucky.
The brothers who first came here faced hostility from local farmers unaccustomed to the centuries old traditions of Catholic asceticism. Religious men farming the red clay wearing white cowls were a strange sight to these mostly protestant eyes here in Georgia.
But the brothers gained acceptance through decades of working hard and helping their neighbours, sleeping at first in the second floor of an old barn while their farm animals lived right below them. The barn is now part of the monastic museum.
Over time they built an architecturally impressive church attached to their cloister and began marketing items for sale to support their work. They also allow visitors to stay in a separate facility for a contemplative pause in their ordinary lives, here within the daily prayer cycle of the monks.
Today the monastery is well known for its bakery — especially for its fruitcake and biscotti. It also has developed a reputation for making superior fudge, for confecting candied pecans, and for growing bonsai trees.
Jim and I really enjoyed our visit today. We stayed for the 12:15 prayers that we’re sung in the church, much as religious people have done for the 1,500-year history of Christian monasticism.
We especially loved talking with Father Thomas, a priest in his 90s who told us wonderful stories about life in the monastery after he first came here in the 1950s. Father Thomas then blessed a statue we bought in the gift shop for a Catholic relative and posed for pictures.
Robert Craig Waters 