SILENCE BROKEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 154, 3 July 1939, Page 5

SILENCE BROKEN.

TRAPPIST MONKS.

GIRL VISITORS IN SHORTS. NEW CHURCH ON SHOW. ! (By Air Mail.) LONDON. June 10. Women flocked in hundreds to the Trappist Monastery of Mount St. Bernard, in Leicestershire, when for the first time in history they were admitted to the grounds and allowed to talk to monks who are vowed to almost complete silence. For six days, while the new church they have built is on show, the silence ban is lifted and the grounds are open to the public. The monks regard conversation as a sin—they do not speak to each other without permission. And no woman had ever been inside the monastery before. From miles around women came from the country estates, the big towns and the factories, to see the monks and their new church in the heart of Chain wood Forest. By cars, by . excursion trains, on cycles and on foot, the women travelled to the monastery. Many were factorv girls weaving trousers,"' beach slacks. ■shorts, and paper hats. Like a Pair Ground. People picnicked among the buttercups, boys and girls flayed cricket with walking sticks, couples slept in the sunshine near their parked cars. Teas and lemonade and sandwiches were sold bv waitresses from a marquee in the grounds a stone's throw from the monastery buildings. Ices were sold from a yellow van parked beside the church entrance. Small boys hawked chocolate and chewing gum the queue waiting to enter the church. Girls crowded round the shavenhaired monks asking them questions. Said a monk who had been in the abbey for more than twenty years: "Before I left the outside world I was in a factory at Birmingham with 1200 work girls."

Only twelve of the seventy-two monks, chosen for their tact and experience, were on duty in the public parts of the grounds. The remainder kept to their cloisters, remaining unseen. But their quiet was not undisturbed. From two loudspeakers on the lawn beside the church announcements boomed out throughout the afternoon directing people and announcing an organ recital. I Monks as Salesmen. Except in the church and that portion of the building locked to visitors, these grounds, which for over 1000 years have known privacy, were as carefree as any seaside camping ground. From a stall monks distributed leaflets about the tonic wines produced ' from the abbey, and sold literature and ' shilling pots of honey from their bee farm. i Eggs and milk from another part of] the abbey's big farm were used in the refreshment marquee. From 10 a.m. onwards the tripper parties trooped round the church with monks acting as ' guides. I Many girl cyclists, without hate, used handkerchiefs and coloured scarves to cover their heads. No comment was made about their shorts, their beach pyjamas. After a tour of the church visitors were directed to a rock crowned with ; a cross, from which the countryside can be seen over the roof of the ne"w church tor forty miles around. A monastery official said: "The decision to open the ground to the public has been a success. People have enjoyed themselves here in the open ' air and we are pleased to find that the conduct of all of them in the church I has been gratifyingly reverent."