For the monks of Sion, a first foothold on the island

The Cistercesian monks of Sion Abbey, who have been scouting possibilities of relocating their monastic home to the island of Schiermonnikoog, have found a first place to call home, if a temporary one. Through the offices of a Belgian sponsor, the monks were able to purchase a house in the sole village on the island, a house which was until recently used a hairdresser’s shop and home. The house is situated on the east-west axis of the village, on the edge of the historic village heart and a newer postwar area, and will be used by two monks from May onwards.

The community has plans to build a new monastery on Schiermonnikoog as their current monastery, near Diepenveen in the northeast of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, is too large and expensive to maintain. It is likely that they’ll choose a more removed location for the new monastery, even though their current house is in the village. The major part of the Island is a national park of dunes and beaches, although their are also areas of Farmland to the south and east of the village.

Schiermonnikoog has an important monastic past and is even named for the monks who used live and work there, meaning “island of the grey monks”. Like these mediëval monks, the new community is also Cistercian, albeit of the Order of the Strict Observance, which developed out of the original Cistercian Order in the 17th century.

The website of Sion Abbey has a list of “frequently asked questions” in Dutch regarding the relocation.

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On Schiermonnikoog, the first monks arrive

…but only to scout the territory.

In May of last year, I wrote about the plans of the Trappist monks of Sion Abbey to relocate from their monumental abbey to the a new house on the island of Schiermonnikoog. Today the first three monks arrived for a week-long visit in order to experience island life and to consider possible locations for the new abbey.

Staying in a holiday bungalow, the three monks will be seen in their regular habits, which have already been getting them some glances on the ferry to the island. They were met upon arrival by the mayor of Schiermonnikoog, as shown in the photo above.

The relocation of the abbey to Schiermonnikoog is not certain yet, but the will does seem to be there. The monks have informal contacts with the municipality, the province and Natuurmonumenten, which manages the parts of the island outside the only village as a national park.

Monks coming north

The Trappist monks of Sion Abbey in Diepenveen, north of Deventer in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, are abandoning their abbey. Built in 1883 for a community of more than 100 monks, has become too big, housing only 12 Cistercian monks of the Strict Observance, Trappists for short. Maintenance costs for the buildings have become too high for the small community and, as Abbot Alberic Bruschke says, sharing it with other users is not possible, since it wouldn’t be a monastery any longer.

But where are the twelve monks going? They’re not dispersing over other monasteries in the Netherlands and abroad, I’m happy to read. Even happier is their decision to come about as far north as is possible while remaining on Dutch soil: to the island of Schiermonnikoog, off the coast of the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden. Abbot Alberic says: “A small, new beginning, in all simplicity, of a new life as monks. New and at the same time a restart in timeless continuity with our Cistercian tradition.”

The exact location and shape of the new foundation on the island is not yet known, but the choice of Schiermonnikoog is not random. In the local old dialect, the name of the island means ‘Island of the grey monks’, referring to the Cistercian monks who had come from the Claercamp monastery in Frisia. In the Middle Ages they established a grange on the island and were responsible for much of the early reclamation of land from the ever-shifting sand flats and sea to the south, between island and mainland. In 1580 that ended, as the Reformation took all possessions from the monastery, including Schiermonnikoog. But the monastic history of the island has always been recognised, and in 1961 a statue of a monk  (pictured at right) was placed in the island’s only village.

Once the monks have moved to Schiermonnikoog, they will form only the second religious foundation in the diocese, after the hermitage of Our Lady of the Garden Enclosed in Warfhuizen, which was established in 2001.

^Schiermonnikoog from the air, seen from the south west. Apart from the village, the entire island is a national park. It is some 18 kilometers in length and forever moves slowly eastward.