It might seem odd that a group of monks is hosting a festival.
With the monks' vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, soirees wouldn’t seem to rank high on the list of commitments for guys in robes who work and pray all day.
Yet the feeling that surrounds the recently unveiled visitors’ complex at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers is welcoming and even a little playful.
The Monastic Heritage Center, which opened in May, includes a neat, stylish cafe with Wi-Fi; a bonsai tree garden that sells the delicate plants and accessories, as well as other fair-trade gifts and knickknacks you would find at shops in Decatur or Virginia-Highland.
There is also an interactive museum that tells the history of monasticism as well as the story of how the monks came to Conyers in 1944. Some of the sleek, new exhibits are housed in the refurbished barn the original 21 monks lived in when they first arrived in Georgia. At 100 years old, one member of the founding group is still at the monastery.
On Oct. 1, the Trappist monks are showing off all the new center offers to the community with a festival that will include a petting zoo and pony rides for children, hayrides, several organic food and crafts vendors, book signings with Holy Spirit monks who’ve published, tours of the abbey church, and a performance by the Atlanta Sacred Chorale.
Atlanta’s Trappist monks, also known as Cistercians, don’t serve up coveted, ancient beers to the public as their brethren do in Belgium, but they do make fudge, biscotti, fruitcake and honey with similar care and precision.
The sale of their crafts and products enables the order to be self-sufficient. The new center is an example of how the monks are making efforts to keep pace with a 21st-century community and to encourage sales of their products, as well as awareness of how open they are to visitors.
The monks are Catholic but say the complex is open to people of any or even of no faith. Proselytizing to the public is not part of their service.
“There is religion, and then there is spiritual life,” said Brother Callistus Crichlow, the monastery’s development director. “Our focus is on the spiritual journey of man. We minister to others through prayer but also through hospitality.”
Event preview
Festival and open house from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 1. Atlanta Sacred Chorale concert at 7 p.m. Oct.1. $15-$20 for concert admission. Monastery of the Holy Spirit, 2625 Ga. 212 S.W., Conyers. 770-483-8705, www.trappist.net.
Trappist monks
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