PEOSTA, Iowa — The era of farming by New Melleray Abbey monks came to end Nov. 20 when the monastery’s farm machinery was auctioned in a hay field. The blustery day drew 500 auction goers ...

(RNS) — The Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey have always given away child caskets. Now they're offering adult caskets to people in need.

PEOSTA, Iowa — --Amid the gently contoured hills of eastern Iowa, only a few miles from the Mississippi River, New Melleray provides guests with an idyllic setting in which to escape the hustle ...

Rev. Bernard Cullen, 90, of New Melleray Abbey, Peosta, Iowa. Beloved son of Bernard and Catherine (O'Connor), dear brother of John Bernard (Ruth Cleary), C ...

PEOSTA, Iowa — Abbot Brendan Freeman said New Melleray Abbey’s decision to quit farming did not come easily. Get 3 months/99¢ a month SUBSCRIBE NOW Show Search. Clear Search Query Submit Search.

For nearly 160 years, the Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey have worked with their hands to support their lives of prayer. For most of that time, it was agricultural work — raising grain and ...

At New Melleray, which was founded by Irish monks who came to Iowa in 1849, prayer is considered "the center of life," said Father Brendan Freeman, who has been the abbot for 20 years.

These days, silence is often characterized as awkward, uncomfortable, and even irresponsible. But the silence experienced at New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, Iowa, is anything but these.

Trappists, Sam Mulgrew tells me, “are very land-based.” We’re sitting in the office of Trappist Caskets, just a short walk from New Melleray Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa.

In response to the coronavirus, 22 Trappist monks living in New Melleray Abbey in eastern Iowa, about 13 miles from Dubuque, decided to offer pine caskets to financially strapped families with ...

The New Melleray Trappists will be at home with their monastic family, too. At Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, the abbey church bells will ring, and the Iowa monks will sing hymns like “Angels We ...