Here was the astonishing spectacle of a Trappist mission in which the contemplative monks had achieved in few short years, a success more spectacular than many active order had dared dream of. The most astounding thing about this new mission was that it was operating on purely Benedictine lines. It was an apostolate of prayer and labour, of liturgy and the plough.

In time this missionary work of Abbot Francis and of his monastery, dedicated to Mary and Saint Ann, brought about “an Order within an Order”. Contemplation and intense missionary activity meant a marriage that the Order of the Reformed Cistercians could not bless.

The new family will draw its fundamental inspiration from Abbot Francis. this great missionary monk, and from his monastic community, missionary like him. Everything had started in 1882 with the initiative of this courageous apostle: when he founded his monastery that year, he had already received from Rome the mandate to go and “spread the light that enlightens the nations.”