Cistercian Monastery Vyšší Brod / Hohenfurth

founded in AD 1259 by the noble House of Rosenberg and entrusted to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Address:   Cisterciácké opatství Vyšší Brod, Klášter 137, CZ-38273 Vyšší Brod, Czech Republic

Foundation of monastic life today

Man was made to be incessantly bound to God, his Creator. All the same, at the very beginning man abandonned God. This separation from God has a continuous inner effect on every man and destroys his original integrity, his inner unity. Among the fruits of this unity are peace, a still and deep joy and mildness. These gifts make man pleasing not only to God, but also to other people, the animals and the rest of nature. Separation from God, on the other hand, brings about tension, misunderstanding, wars and permanent restlessness. These phenomena are the consequence of Original Sin. Baptism does not remove the consequences of Original Sin completely, but it shows a way to deal with it and gives man strength and support to follow him. For this reason, the aim of monastic life is to completely restore man’s integrity with God. This can only occur gradually, step by step, because men are led by their habits in everyday life.

As the father of monasticism, St. Benedict shows us the way leading to the restoration of this integrity: there are two states inside us: the all-embracing closeness with God, and everything that remains, i.e. separation from God. All of us know that we often do things that, deep in our hearts, we disagree with and do not desire to do. The monastic solution to this state of things is to shift between these states so often that we get used to life with God as the only true state, and thus restore our integrity with God. To accomplish this there are proven means contained in the teaching of St. Benedict: regular and frequent prayer (“Ora”), in the form of common prayer and as private prayer, physical work (“Labora”), and finally the meditative spiritual reading (“lectio divina”). The Cistercian reform of the monastic life in the 12^th century consists in the realistic and redeeming balance of these basic pillars of monastic life.

Prayer/Ora

The Divine Office is the central part of the life of the monastery and the church. Nothing may be put before it because it is the participation in the heavenly liturgy, in which angels and the saints incessantly worship the Lamb of God and Him who sits on the throne. The service gives its most elevated expression and sustenance to our complete devotion, and creative strength to the monastic community. Therefore, everything in the monastery has to be focused on the meeting and unification with God. In the course of this, active participation in the celebration of the sacraments and the canonical prayers has a prominent position. (Constitutions of the Cistercian Order)

Work/Labora

According to St. Benedict Rule, prayer, reading and work conducted in sensible turns and to a balanced extent, is the true way to God. Work is taking part in the Creation of God and Salvation. It belongs to the substance and dignity of Man and it serves the development of his personality and skills. Apart from that, it is, in the form of arduous daily work, a most excellent means of the Cistercian asceticism, contributes to creating and keeping the community alive, and enables the monastery to share the yield of work with the poor and the needy. (Constitutions of the Cistercian Order).

Lectio divina

While in the celebration of prayer at canonical hours the monks offer the Lord praise for His just reign in His creation and salvation, they receive His words in the reading Sacred Scripture. The reading helps them always to better understand and experience the mystery of Jesus Christ. The slow and contemplative reading of the Bible and other spiritual literature leads to contemplation. (Constitutions of the Cistercian Order).

Eucharist

The church lives and grows from the Eucharist. It is the source and summit of the whole Christian life, and therefore it has to be celebrated in the monastery every day, if possible in the form of concelebration. All the members of the community have to take part in it, united with Jesus Christ in word, sacrifice and sustenance, in order to present and renew the love of the mystic Body of Christ in the monastery community. The monks also take part in adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in order to further grow in the love and imitation of Christ.

Community life of the monks

Except for cases where the abbot decides differently, the monk has to live in the monastery community. If a monk is open to his brothers and is willing to serve them in an unselfish manner, they will find true human security. As all transgressions weaken our unity in Christ, the whole community has to work on its conversion and renew its brotherly love all the time. This may be conducted in old or new forms of the “chapter of faults” or in liturgical repentance celebrations. Yet the brothers have to point out each other’s mistakes tactfully, too. In this way they do a true service to each other.

Enclosure

Seclusion from the world is a condition for the monastic life and a substantial part of the Cistercian tradition. The monks are not allowed to leave the monastery without the permission of the senior brother in charge. The enclosure enables the monks to lead their common monastic life, protects the territory of the inner monastery and supports the dialogue with God. It has to include the inner domain of the monastery in which the life of the community takes place. In general it involves the dormitory section, cloister, chapter hall, refectory, recreation hall and the monastery garden. Work rooms may be situated outside the enclosure.

The Term feudal foundation and/or monastery's domain

A feudal foundation - domain was more than just a monastery. It includes not only the spiritual but also a secular sphere. A precondition of such a foundation was the donation of a domain with land. The abbot, who was a member of the prelate estate in the local parliament, was not only in charge of discipline in his monastery, but he also held public, i.e. state rights: administrative rights, police power and jurisdiction over the serfs settled in the area of the domain’s land. These serfs were given the land on hire, for which they had to pay rent to the owner. The relationship of these “land holders” to the landlord was expressed in the ownership rights that they were granted. While the free domain right was the least advantageous ownership right, as its holder could be dismissed from his farmstead annually, the purchase right was a better one, comparable to renting a flat under rent control. This right was in general instituted in ecclesiastic domains, which gave rise to the common saying: “Life is good under the crozier.” The area of a monastery domain was, for the purposes of better recording, divided into administrative sections, each called departments, in which the administrative function was executed by a secular clerk supervised by the monastery. Thus for example in the 18^th century the area of the monastery domain Vyšší Brod involved 31 departments.

The rooms in a monastery and their symbolic meaning

The monastery church (oratory) is oriented with its presbytery (the front part of the church) towards the east. The rising sun symbolises Christ. It meets the monastic community at the beginning of the day during Lauds (the morning praise). The choir stalls are situated in the middle of the nave at a certain distance from the presbytery and the transept. Formerly the front part of the church including the choir stalls was separated by the choir screen. The separated part was “enclosed”, that is, accessible only to the monastic community. The part between the choir stalls and the main entrance was, on the contrary, intended for the public. The part with the choir stalls belongs to the most important areas of the monastery because the entire monastic community meets here seven times a day to praise God together. The monastery church expresses its symbolic role by the fact that it protects the remaining parts of the church, that is, the cloister with the rooms adjoining it in the east, south and west, from the northern side. The North symbolises Darkness, Evil, the opposite of Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world.

• The cloister walk links the most important parts of the monastery. The German word “Kloster”, that is, monastery, is derived from the Latin “claustrum monasterii”, that is, enclosure. The monks walking in the cloister can always see the “paradise garden” through the windows. This reminds them of the eschatological promise of Paradise or Heaven at the end of their earthly lives. In the past monks were buried under the floor of the cloister; abbots, on the other hand, were buried in the chapter hall and later near the church entrance.Due to its proximity to the church, the cloister is used for the lectio divina, processions and the “Collationes”, that is, common reading before the Compline.

• The chapter hall is situated near the church and is also oriented towards the east. The abbot, who is the Vicar of Christ for his monks, has his seat in the front, that is, on the eastern side of the hall. The monastic community normally assembles in the chapter hall in the morning, after the first daily prayers, in order to discuss the spiritual and material tasks and matters of the day. What is to be said for all is to be presented here. The name of the chapter hall is derived from the fact that the monks hear a chapter from the Rule of St. Benedict every day and then, in the spirit of the passage heard, make the required decisions. For this reason the chapter hall is the second most important room for the life of the monastic community. It is also the room where new members are festively received and parting is taken from the deceased members.

• The refectory is actually the refreshment hall. The monastic community assembles there at midday and in the evening for the daily meals. During the meals, monks are waited upon by their brothers on duty and silently listen to reading from a spiritual book.

• The dormitory is the sleeping hall, nowadays divided in separate cells. The monks spend the time of rest there. The dormitory area also contains the section for the ill.

The monastery in Vyšší Brod / Hohenfurth as it stands today is more than just a historical monument and cultural heritage. It is an inhabited house, a living tradition. Thanks be to God!