The Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a

Benedictine abbey , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

located in

Westfield, Vermont Westfield is a town in Orleans County, Vermont United States. The population was 534 at the 2020 census. The town was founded in 1780 and named after Rhode Island general and politician, William West, a supporter of Vermont statehood. Westfiel ...

History

The Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was founded in 1981 by nuns from the Abbaye Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes in

Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, Quebec Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in the Canadian province of Quebec, in the Deux-Montagnes Regional County Municipality, 40 km from Montreal. It is crossed from east to west by Route 344, commonly known as Oka Ro ...

. It is part of the

Solesmes Congregation The Solesmes Congregation is an association of monasteries within the Benedictine Confederation headed by the Abbey of Solesmes. History The congregation was founded in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI as the French Benedictine Congregation, with the then ...

, and traces its origins to St. Cecilia's Abbey, and the 11th Century

Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Gu� ...

in France. The only other monastery of the Solesmes Congregation in the United States is

Clear Creek Abbey Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey or Clear Creek Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey in the Ozark Mountains near Hulbert in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. It is located in the Diocese of Tulsa. Origins The monastery traces its roots to th ...

in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. The congregation of the monastery uses Latin

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...

during services, part of the spiritual heritage of Cécile Bruyère and

Prosper Guéranger Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger (; commonly referred to as Dom Guéranger, 4 April 1805, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France – 30 January 1875, Solesmes, France) was a French priest and Benedictine monk, who served for nearly 40 years as the Abbot of ...

. Martha Hennessy, a noted peace activist and member of the Catholic Worker Movement, was an

oblate In Christianity (especially in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Methodist traditions), an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God or to God's service. Oblates are individuals, either laypersons or clergy, normally livi ...

at the monastery. The monastery has a guesthouse outside of the monastic enclosure, where women who wish to take part in the quiet and solitude of monastic life can stay. Guests are given three meals a day, prepared by the sisters. There is a small gift shop on the monastery property which sells religious goods such as

rosaries The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

made by the nuns, books, CDs, medals and crucifixes.

Baking of altar bread

The nuns produce and sell altar bread for

consecration Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

during

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

. Proceeds from the sale of altar bread are used to help support the monastery. The monastery began producing altar bread in 1990, after the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus discontinued baking altar breads, giving their equipment to the monastery. The monastery upgraded their baking equipment a few years later, buying five new bakers. In 2017, the monastery shipped over 3.7 million hosts to parishes throughout the United States and Canada, with the majority going to parishes in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington ( la, Dioecesis Burlingtonensis) is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States, comprising the entire state of Vermont. The Diocese of Burlington was canonically e ...

and

Archdiocese of Boston The Archdiocese of Boston ( la, Archidiœcesis Bostoniensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the New England region of the United States. Its territorial remit encompasses the whole of ...

. The batter for the altar bread is made out of flour and water, and baked on a stove. Different types of altar bread call for different mixtures of flours, such as

whole-wheat flour Whole-wheat flour (in the US) or wholemeal flour (in the UK) is a powdery substance, a basic food ingredient, derived by grinding or mashing the whole grain of wheat, also known as the wheatberry. Whole-wheat flour is used in baking of breads ...

and

cake flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...

, to achieve different textures and colours. Altar breads are sorted and inspected prior to shipping. Approximately 5,500 out of every 6,000 breads are suitable for the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

. Some of the imperfect hosts and cuttings from the baking process are sold as "Monastery Manna" in the monastery's gift shop, while others are sold to farmers as animal feed.{{Cite web, date=2015-11-06, title=Nuns say by making altar bread, they're 'helping bring Jesus to souls', url=https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry/nuns-say-making-altar-bread-theyre-helping-bring-jesus-souls-33506, access-date=2022-02-05, website=Global Sisters Report, language=en

References

External links

Video about the monastery's altar bread
by

NBC Boston WBTS-CD (channel 15) is a Class A television station licensed to Nashua, New Hampshire, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Boston area. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside ...

1981 establishments in Vermont Benedictine monasteries in the United States 20th-century Christian monasteries Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington