The Abbey of New Clairvaux is a rural

Trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

monastery located in

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

in the small town of Vina in

Tehama County Tehama County ( ; Wintun for "high water") is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,829. The county seat and largest city is Red Bluff. Tehama County comprises th ...

. The farmland, once owned by

Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American industrialist and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented California in the United States Se ...

, grows

prune A prune is a dried plum, most commonly from the European plum (''Prunus domestica''). Not all plum species or varieties can be dried into prunes. A prune is the firm-fleshed fruit (plum) of ''Prunus domestica'' varieties that have a high solu ...

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

s, and

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s that the monks harvest from the orchards and vineyards to sustain the community.

History and daily life

The Abbey was established in 1955 when monks from the

Abbey of Gethsemani The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani is a Catholic monastery in the United States near Bardstown, Kentucky, in Nelson County. The abbey is part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (''Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae''), ...

sought to begin a foundation in California. The monks live an austere contemplative life of penance and prayer on behalf of the reparation of sins. Their order is called

Cistercians The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

of the Strict Observance. The setting is extremely quiet and the monastery is completely hidden behind a wall that separates the guest and

extern In the C programming language, an external variable is a variable defined outside any function block. On the other hand, a local (automatic) variable is a variable defined inside a function block. Definition, declaration and the extern keywor ...

quarters and the monastic enclosure. There is very little interaction between the monks and retreatants; however, guests are welcome to join the monks in the chapel to chant the Divine Office seven times per day, beginning with

Vigil A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' (Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become genera ...

at 3:30 a.m. and ending with

Compline Compline ( ), also known as Complin, Night Prayer, or the Prayers at the End of the Day, is the final prayer service (or office) of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours, which are prayed at fixed prayer times. The English wo ...

at 7:35 p.m. California Governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...

is known to visit the Abbey. In 2009 Brown visited at the monastery before announcing his candidacy for California Governor. From 1980 to 2013, the number of members of the abbey decreased from 35 to 22.

Chapter house

The community reassembled what the monks call their "Sacred Stones", the limestone blocks from the 800-year-old chapter house (meeting room) of the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monastery of Santa Maria de Ovila that once stood in

Trillo, Guadalajara Trillo is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Spain. According to the 2007 census (INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de ...

, in Spain.

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

purchased the chapter house of the old Spanish monastery in 1925 for $97,000, dismantled it, and had the stones shipped to California in 1931, intending to include them in

Wyntoon Wyntoon is the name of a private estate in rural Siskiyou County, California, owned by the Hearst Corporation. Architects Willis Polk, Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan all designed structures for Wyntoon, beginning in 1899. The land, sited ...

, a grand home he was building in remote Northern California. Instead, Hearst gave the stones to the city of San Francisco as part of an arrangement to abate taxes that he owed. The stones sat in San Francisco's Golden Gate park for decades. In 1955, Father Thomas Davis, abbot of the newly-founded abbey of New Clairvaux, noticed the stones in the park. From 1979 to 1983, the art historian Margaret Burke studied the stones to plan an eventual restoration project. Father Thomas Davis eventually made a deal with the city to get the 1,300 leftover stones and handle the reconstruction of the church. In 1994, the stones were given to the abbey. In 2004, after raising $7 million in~funds, the construction of the chapter house began outside the cloister of the Abbey of New Clairvaux. In October 2008, the ancient chapter house's Gothic portal was completed. In 2009, construction on the interior of the chapter house began with Gothic columns rising to their capitals. The 2010

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. was established in 1979 by homebrewing, homebrewers Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi in Chico, California, United States. The brewery produced in 2010, and as of 2016, Sierra Nevada Brewing is the seventh-largest Brewery, ...

partnership helped the abbey finance this project. Additional limestones from Texas were purchased to complete the plans. The construction finished in December 2017. 65% of the stones were originals, 35% were imported from Texas (because of chemical compatibility and color correspondence). The new building was dedicated in July 2018. 7 prayer services are held every day.

Wine

Leland Stanford had a vineyard on the property as far back as 1881, and Stanford's winery building still stands on the grounds. In 2000, the New Clairvaux Vineyard was planted. The monastery began to sell its wine in 2005. In 2011, the abbey planted the Greek varieties

assyrtiko Assyrtiko or Asyrtiko is a white Greek wine grape indigenous to the island of Santorini. Assyrtiko is widely planted in the arid volcanic-ash-rich soil of Santorini and other Aegean islands, such as Paros. It is also found on other scattered reg ...

and moschofilero (quarter-acre each) alongside its

tempranillo Tempranillo (also known as Ull de Llebre, Cencibel, Tinto Fino and Tinta del Pais in Spain, Aragonez or Tinta Roriz in Portugal, and several other synonyms elsewhere) is a black grape variety widely grown to make full-bodied red wines in its ...

albariño Alvarinho () or Albariño () is a variety of white wine grape grown in Northwest Portugal (Monção and Melgaço) and Galicia (northwest Spain) where it is also used to make varietal white wines. In Portugal it is known as Alvarinho, and some ...

and

syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse B ...

. The cuttings of those Greek varieties were imported in the USA in 1948 by

Harold Olmo Harold Olmo (July 31, 1909 – June 30, 2006) was an American viticulturist and professor at the University of California, Davis where he created many new grape varieties known today as Olmo grapes. In the 1950s, he helped to establish Calif ...

, grape breeder at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, where they were stored until the abbey of New Clairvaux took interest in the 2000s.

Beer

In 2010,

partnered with the Abbey, with the monastery beginning production of Trappist-style beers in 2011. The Abbey has not yet been sanctioned by the International Trappist Association, and therefore will not be brewing official

Trappist beer Trappist beer is brewed by Trappist monks. Thirteen Trappist monasteries—six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Austria, Italy, England, France, and Spain—currently produce beer, but the ''Authentic Trappist Product'' label ...

. Several

dubbel The term dubbel (also double) is a Belgian Trappist beer naming convention. The origin of the dubbel was a strong version of a brown beer brewed in Westmalle Abbey in 1856, which is known to have been on sale to the public by June 1861.Jef van den ...

tripel Tripel is a term used by brewers mainly in the Low Countries, some other European countries, and the U.S. to describe a strong pale ale, loosely in the style of ''Westmalle Tripel''. The origin of the term is unknown, though the main theory is ...

, and

quadrupel A Quadrupel (Flemish for 'quadruple') is a type of beer, with an alcohol by volume of 9.1% to 14.2%. There is little agreement on the status of Quadrupel as a beer style. Writer Tim Webb notes that similar beers are called ''Grand Cru'' in Bel ...

Abbey beer An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

s are produced under the Ovila label.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:New Clairvaux, Abbey Of Churches in California European medieval architecture in the United States Buildings and structures in Tehama County, California Christian organizations established in 1955 1955 establishments in California Trappist monasteries in the United States 20th-century Christian monasteries Wineries in California