In northeast Scotland, six miles southwest of Elgin in Moray, stands Pluscarden Abbey, the northernmost Benedictine abbey in the world. Within its medieval walls, a community of some 15 Catholic monks ...

For the first time since 1835, the monks of the Santo Domingo de Silos Monastery in Spain — known for their Gregorian chant — have been forced to abandon the seclusion of their cells. However, this ...

Trappist monks watch for Christmas differently than the rest of us, without colored lights, yard decorations or holiday parties. Instead of Bing Crosby or Mariah Carey, an Iowa monastery gets the ...

Looking for unique Christmas gifts? There are many monasteries and religious communities that offer handmade gifts that celebrate the Catholic faith. Buying presents online from religious brothers and ...

Spain’s monasteries offer exquisite examples of the faded glamor of godly things. In the Cistercian Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Oseira in northwestern Spain, I passed from one outdoor ...

FREMONT COUNTY • Hidden deep in the foothills outside of Cañon City, a steep, rocky terrain and towering evergreens flank a winding dirt road that eventually leads to an indigenous moat, where the ...

A colorful painting of a bald man with large ears and a mischievous smile hung on an otherwise unadorned wall at the Trappist monastery in Huntsville that was my boyhood home away from home in the ...

Three Roman Catholic monks are fighting to keep alive a monastic cheese-making tradition in Bosnia that has been passed down by word of mouth for 130 years. The pale yellow Trappist cheese made by ...

St. Matthew’s Monastery is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in Iraq and is said to be up to 1,600-years-old Yousif Ibrahim, the head monk at Saint Matthew’s Monastery, laments the ...

Spencer Trappist Ale, brewed by the monks at St. Joseph's Abbey, is made at one of a dozen craft breweries in Central Massachusetts. PHOTO/COURTESY Spencer Trappist Brewery, the only Trappist brewery ...