Monasteries Throughout the Ages

From very humble beginnings to today, the Trappist Fathers took various buildings as living quarters to meet their needs of the moment.

Thus, the first building was squatter Gaudreault’s wooden hut. This house of fortune could not remain the home for the new community. The first building built by the Fathers to be used as a monastery was completed in 1893. Located close to the falls, this second wooden monastery was much more liveable. Unfortunately, the spring flood devastated it in 1909.

There was no middle ground to replace it: they built a new monastery far from the water. Bigger, it required 350,000 bricks, manufactured on the building’s premises. It goes without saying that it was better suited to the monastic community, now with 30 members and 700 acres of cleared land. It was enlarged with a stone church. Completed in 1938, it is well known for its two steeples that made it emblematic. The building now houses a CLSC and a seniors’ residence, in addition to offering the population the opportunity to grow a vegetable garden on its vast land. Somehow, the Trappist legacy of agricultural education vocation even persists today through this service.

Urban growth combined with the reduction in the number of Fathers resulted in their relocation to the limits of the municipality, to a more serene place and in a better adapted monastery. Located at St-Eugène-D'argentenay, the new building is located alongside the famous Trappist confectionery.