Nový Dvůr

Even before the Velvet Revolution, God had stirred the desire in the hearts of some Czechoslovakian Christians to live the life of a Trappist monk. They knew about it through Thomas Merton’s book, The Seven Story Mountain, which had been translated and published in Rome in 1968 and then illegally smuggled into the country stifled by the Communist regime.

In August 1991, a group of priests and young Czechs visited Sept-Fons to ask if they could found a monastery in the Czech Republic. The Abbot and Master of Novices agreed to receive young men and train them for the monastic life.

What seemed unimaginable became a reality. Young Czechs came in number. The first four took their solemn vows in 1998, whilst others were still in training. Thus Sept-Fons was able to envisage a foundation in this country, where all religious and monastic life had been forbidden for decades. The brothers chose the diocese of Plzeň (Pilsen), in the southwest of the country, which covers part of the former Sudetenland, a place of mourning still marked by the human tragedy of the expulsion of the German population after the Second World War.

At the end of January 1999, the brothers discovered an extensive 18th-century farm in very poor condition, called Nový Dvůr (New Court). The site is splendid and solitary, on a high plateau with a harsh climate, three quarters of an hour from Pilsen and a good hour from Prague. The farm, which was built for the Premonstratensian Abbey of Teplá by the Baroque architect Kilian Ignatz Dientzenhofer (1689-1751) was abandoned in the 1950s when the Communist regime suppressed the monasteries. It consisted of a noble residential building and three wings of outbuildings surrounding a square courtyard with a well in the middle.

Building an abbey means rethinking the Cistercian tradition in contemporary terms. A minimalist London architect, John Pawson →John Pawson, agreed to build the elements necessary for monastic life in a style that conforms to Cistercian simplicity and restore the Baroque parts in collaboration with Jan Soukup’s agency →Jan Soukup and the company Bolid-M →Bolid-M s.r.o. was chosen to supervise the construction work.

A few brothers from Sept-Fons took turns leading the monastic life in the rectory of Nečtiny, provided by the diocese, and overseeing the building work. A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had been placed from the start to ensure the Virgin’s protection during the construction.

On 11 June 2001, Dom Patrick, abbot of Sept-Fons, laid the foundation stone of the church in the presence of many friends, priests and monks, the Nuncio, Monsignor František Radkovský, Bishop of Plzeň, and Monsignor Philippe Barbarin, Bishop of Moulins.

On 20 August 2002, the solemnity of our Father Saint Bernard, the monastery was founded. The monks left the house in Nečtiny to settle at the site.
To the singing of the psalms, behind the Cross and the statue of the Virgin, which is now in the abbey church, the procession wound its way up through the woods. The Bishop presided over the Eucharist. After the reading of the foundation act, the abbot of Sept-Fons blessed the founders. On the day of the foundation, only a temporary chapel and a scriptorium were actually completed. The workers had just left the south wing, housing the refectory, kitchen and dormitory, and the west wing. An old cooker, at the back of the refectory furnished with tables donated by a French monastery, was used to prepare meals. The Rule was read in a corner of the cloister and the brothers of Sept-Fons, who had come with the founders, helped set up the dormitory, which was ready by nightfall.

During the first few years, the “mother house” provided the young community with just the support it needed.
Dom Patrick, the abbot of Sept-Fons, would come to preside over vestments and professions, and adjust what deserved to be adjusted. Father Nicolas, the Master of Novices, who had trained all the founders, came two or three times a year for a forty-eight hour stay, and advised the young Master of Novices of the young community, as well as his young disciples, reminding them of the foundations of monastic life.

On Easter Day in 2003, we celebrated the Mass in a concrete vessel. Not the Vigils though… there was no electricity yet! On the eve of September 2, 2004, everything was ready. There had been a lot of rain during the previous days, but friends trusting in Providence had promised us that it would not rain on the day of celebration. And they were right.

The Dedication is the perpetual sanctification of a church, conceived above all as a house of prayer, giving the word “prayer” the widest meaning possible. The church is a house of prayer not only because people come here to pray, but intrinsically because of its perpetual sanctification. And prayers are answered better than elsewhere because it is holy, because it is inhabited by a Presence, because the consecration, composed of prayers and particularly solemn rites, has made it a true, concrete and permanent prayer. Domus orationis, it is not only the house where we pray, it is the house-that-prays, with all its stones, it is the praying house, it is the house-prayer.

Three to four thousand people attended the ceremony, most of them outside, following the liturgy on giant screens. Among them were Cistercian-Trappist abbots and abbesses, monks and nuns, priests and bishops. Monsignor Radkovský presided over the ceremony in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Vlk, then Archbishop of Prague, and Monsignor Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, who a few months later would be created Cardinal, a friend who has remained faithful. In the days following this ceremony, the monks of Sept-Fons and Nový Dvůr gave some homilies → Excerpts from the homilies in the octave of the dedication.

The novitiate was opened in 2004. Many young people come to discern their vocation. Only a few decided to enter the monastery, but staying in a community allows everyone to strengthen their faith and their life of prayer and helps to build a future in which God is present.

On 14 September 2007, during the Eucharist presided over by the Bishop of our diocese, Monsignor František Radkovský, the Father Abbot of Sept-Fons read the act of erection in the priory. After this reading, the solemnly and temporarily professed brothers came to pronounce their vows of stability, each in turn in the middle of the choir. Through this vow, they promised to remain until death in the community where God had called them to lead the monastic life. The election of the prior then took place in the church. The rite and accompanying oaths gave the celebration a strong supernatural emphasis. After the election, the Father Abbot gave the new seal and the keys of the monastery to the elected prior, Dom Samuel Lauras, to whom the brothers promised obedience. The following day, on the feast of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, the Father Superior of Sept-Fons and the Father Superior of Nový Dvůr placed a golden crown on the statue of the Virgin in the cloister.

On 24 June 2009 the hostel, built in a former stable which had a hay barn on the first floor, was blessed.

On 8 December 2011, no-one other than the monks witnessed the solemn act that made Nový Dvůr, founded nine years and a few months earlier, an abbey. The superior of the foundation, before becoming its prior, was chosen by his brothers. During Vespers, Dom Samuel dedicated his ministry, the new abbey and the novitiate, to the Most Pure Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Everyone, including novices and postulants, signed the act that testified to this on the altar. The illuminated parchment was placed in a golden cross placed on the bell tower of the abbey church.

On 12 December 2011, in memory of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dom Samuel received the Abbey blessing with the insignia of his office: the Rule, the ring, the crosier and the mitre.

Everyday life then resumed. For a monk, this above all involves a solid life of prayer that leads to a deep friendship with God and draws the world to him.