Chapter 3 Chinese monastery

Indeed, in China, there was a Trappist monastery.But the story goes back to the French Revolution. Behind the thick stone walls of the French monastery, after a century and a half of praying and working away from the world, the Trappist monks were greatly impacted by the French Revolution.The revolution has no place for monks, and it has no intention of making indiscriminate questions about monasteries.The Trappists, who were silent and far away from the world, were not spared.The monastery was destroyed and the monks were hunted down.In the past, there were only black and white monk uniforms floating in the plain monastery, only ruined walls and blood stains remained.Trappists were all but wiped out.Fortunately, one fled to Switzerland in 1790, and soon began a new journey of penance.They can't change it, it's their way of being.After nearly a hundred years of recuperation, the Trappists have gradually expanded, and church members have joined their ranks of silence.Based on the lessons of the French Revolution, they searched for places around the world to build homes that could accommodate them, and they began to disperse.Tolerant North America thus became a major base for them.However, the monastic way of life doomed their development to be slow. At the end of the 19th century, there were still only fifty-three Trappist monasteries in the world, and one of them was newly built, deep in the Taihang Mountains in China.

The opportunity first appeared in 1870, when a Roman Catholic bishop named Dele Price was about to be transferred to a teaching post in China that year.This is a bishop full of religious zeal.He had always dreamed of building a monastery in China, but suffered from lack of funds.As it happened, before he left Rome, he met Sophia, a rather famous duchess, quite by chance.She is very rich, but is about to give up everything to become a nun in a convent near Brussels.The monastery belonged to the Carmelites, a branch of the Catholic monastery.Their common religious zeal made them hit it off.Sophia promised to donate 60,000 francs on the spot as a fund for the establishment of a Chinese monastery.

Bishop de Laples had his own considerations in this idea.Monastery monks are different from missionaries.Missionaries go deep into the secular community, while monks stay away from people.Especially after the French Revolution, the first criterion for the site selection of the monastery was a place of peace and tranquility.At that time, China had experienced three hundred years of stable Qing Dynasty rule, and some were remote mountains and old forests with few people.It seems entirely possible for a small group of people who practice silently to find a quiet place away from the chaos of war forever.

At first, the monastery they discussed was a sister house of the same denomination as the one Sophia entered, and it was also of the Carmelites.They have even planned to send a few pioneers.However, the nun who led the team suddenly became seriously ill, and the plan had to be cancelled.After consideration, these donations were passed on to the Trappists in Europe, giving them the opportunity to establish a monastery in China.Just at this time, a family surnamed Yang in the Taihang Mountains of China donated a large piece of land to the church.Therefore, the location of the future seminary was determined by accident, and it fell in a place called Yangjiaping.The donated land is indeed very large, about 100 square kilometers, but it is far from fertile soil and fertile land, but a rocky beach in a deep valley.

After some preparations, Brother Sono, who was responsible for the founding of the academy, came to Beijing from Europe.After a short rest, he set off for Yangjiaping on a hot summer day.There was only one other European monk who accompanied Jianyuan, and the rest were guides and others.There was no road, so they plunged into Mangmang Taihang and climbed the narrow trails for three days before arriving at this untouched virgin land.Here is a wilderness, full of big rocks, tigers, leopards, wolves, bears and foxes, everything is available.That was June 16, 1883.After half a year, another three monks from France arrived.The small community of five monks began the work of establishing the first Trappist monastery in China, which they called "Consolation".