This label for a jar of honey draws attention to an area neglected in studies of Cistercian Aesthetics: How do and did Cistercians market their products? Since the 19th century, it has been a major topic in very many abbeys. They sell everything from liturgical garments to chocolate. Usually the product has some connection to the monastic life, not always.
This beautiful logo was designed by Fr. Raphael Schaner, O.Cist., of Our Lady of Dallas. It incoporates the classic Cistercian church facade with our famous grisailles tradition, connecting them with the honey comb. Then there is the fun play on words with abbey and bee. Well done!

This abbey was founded by Irish monks who had assembled at the French abbey of Melleray in the early 19th century. It will close in January, 2025.
When, in 1833, a group of Irish monks returned from France and successfully founded Mount Melleray back in their native land, it was one step in the slow healing of traumas inflicted on the Church not only by the French Revolution but by anti-Catholic legislation in Ireland itself. Mount Melleray was the first monastery established in Ireland after the Catholic Emancipation. It is closing now because no one has joined in so long. 
At least six foundations from Mt. Melleray were successful, with two of them attaining a certain prominence. The very first, New Melleray (pictured below), established itself in Iowa, USA.

Their successful casket company garnered praise during the Corona crisis when it offered simple caskets free of charge for those who were struggling to get by. 
Another prominent foundation (see below) was Mt. Saint Bernard in England, where Blessed Cyprian Tansi entered and completed his holy life in 1964. A youthful abbot of that monastery has become the often-read, dynamic, and admired bishop of Trondheim, Eric Varden.

This detail from Hubert Robert's Hermit in the Colosseum (1790) is a good example of the the genre: Architectural ruins are presented as the space for devotions, but only a select few understand their supernatural dimension. The monk (he could be a Cistercian wearing his cowl) is praying at an abandoned altar in the Colosseum, which is itself a paradoxical but compelling site, declared sacred by Benedict XIV in 1749. There Christians were persecutered, there saints were made.
​The monk is framed by chattering women from the market stealing flowers on the left, and a cat who looks suspiciously like a rat on the upper right. The monk remains oblivious to them, it is his office to mourn. Notice that the flowers are below an image of the Virgin Mary. 

Dieses Faltblatt aus dem Jahr 1960, vom Mehrerauer Abt Heinrich Groner herausgegeben, setzt die Mitgliedschaft in der frommen Vereinigung "Passio-Catholica" dem Familiarenstand gleich. Das Mitglied verspricht und unterschreibt, sich als "Ganzopfer" mit allen Gebeten, Arbeiten, Mühen, Verzichten und Leiden mit den Herzen Jesu und Mariens zu vereinigen. Die vier seiten des Blattes folgen:

When the saints go marching in

Cistercian schools are part of an ages-old tradition of learning truth, building character, and deepening knowledge. Where that happens successfully, the students' charisma speaks for itself and stretches far beyond campus.
At Cistercian Prep near Dallas, a group of senior boys called the Miracle Melodies give a few hours of their Monday mornings each week to worship and praise with the kids at Notre Dame School of Dallas. Notre Dame is for students with special needs.
These photos give an impression of the love being shared among kids formed by Catholic education and their joy in the Lord, celebrating the dignity of life and the power of hope.
Worship begins and ends with a Hail Mary ("because it's October"); inbetween the kids sing praise songs like "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "I'm Trading my Sorrows for the Joy of the Lord."

The Miracle Melodies with their form master

Here is one mesmerized listener...

Fist bumps at the end to say:
​have a great day!

Click here to see a short video about Miracle Melodies made in 2023.

Father Lebuin van Midden was a Dutch Cistercian stationed in Rome to help run the order's generalate house for roughly 50 years. In a wonderful moment of serendipity, a regional archive in North Brabant, where he was born and died, has put some of his personal photos online. This rare photographic material shows 20th-century monks in medieval tonsures in papal audiences, Cistercian abbots visiting for Vatican II and attending General Chapters, even smoking cigars: they are impressions of Cistercian life so near and yet so far away.