"The kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
– Matthew, Chapter 13, Verses 31-32

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith:

e, of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance at Sept-Fons, believe God has sent us to you for help to turn a Christian dream into a reality. Since 1991, we have welcomed a number of young men from Czechoslovakia seeking to take up the life of Trappist monks. We have formed them in the monastic life, which consists of a strict routine of prayer, worship, contemplation, and manual labor needed to meet worldly needs.

Now we are preparing to establish a new monastery in rural Novy Dvur, the Czech Republic. It will be that country's first monastery since the fall of Communism and end of religious intolerance. And it will enable these young monks to bring their spirituality back to their native land.

The monastery is being built on the site of an abandoned 100-acre farm, nestled in the remote woodlands of former Bohemia. The monastery's four-wing, rectangular structure, designed by noted British architect John Pawson, will blend the old and the new - the baroque and the modern - but always in keeping with the monks' simple and austere lifestyle.

Imagine. A French community of Cistercian Trappist monks, living an ascetic life of manual labor and contemplation, daring to establish a new monastery for our Czech brothers in one of Europe's most atheistic regions. It is a pure act of simple faith. And, like the proverbial mustard seed, it is already beginning to bear fruit.

– Excerpt of a letter from Father Abbot
   and the Brothers of Sept-Fons