By Kathi Stearns

When the 20 monks from Gethsemane, Ky. Arrived in the rural community of Conyers in 1944 they built a wooden barn which served as their home and church that first year. At that time Catholics made up less than one half of one percent of the population of Georgia so it was understandable that the white-robed monks were mistaken for members of the Ku Klux Klan.

As the community warmed to the new residents the monks built three churches, the last of which was completed in 1961 and formally consecrated by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan Oct. 3, 1975.

On Monday, Oct. 3 Archbishop John F. Donoghue celebrated Mass at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery to celebrate the 19th anniversary of the consecration of the Abbey Church.

During the anniversary Mass the archbishop was introduced to the monks who had come from Gethsemane in 1944 by Abbott Dom Bernard Johnson, OCSO. Throughout the celebration the five living founders of the Conyers foundation carried the same wooden cross they brought to Georgia in 1944.

In his homily Archbishop Donoghue retold the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. A small man, Zacchaeus had to climb a tree to see Jesus; he then invited Him to his home in Jericho. “…Salvation had come to visit his house, and taken up residence in his heart,” the archbishop said.

Like Zacchaeus the small monastic community compensated for its size by becoming large in influence in the Conyers and greater Atlanta areas.

“… I have always believed that every diocese is rich which has a monastic community situated in the diocese,” the archbishop said. “For 50 years this monastery has been with this archdiocese. The growth of the Church, particularly in Atlanta, is due in no small measure to the prayers of this community.”

The archbishop reminded the monks that they, like Zacchaeus, have built a home where Christ is always welcome. “It is here in this monastic church that these monks encounter Jesus every single day of their lives and where they get to see and know His word,” he said. “This is indeed the tree from which they have a great view of the Lord. They come here daily, at all hours, just to be in His presence.”

While Conyers has become “a rich and busy crossroads” like Jericho of Zacchaeus, the monastery remains a peaceful oasis separate from, yet a vital part of, the community. In the words of the archbishop the monastery is a place where the entire community can go to visit with Christ for awhile as Zacchaeus did “down here on the ground, where things are what they appear to be …”

The Mass was the third public celebration this year marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery. On March 21 the monks commemorated the 50th anniversary of the day they took possession of the site. The monks remembered the Trappist family on July 11, the feast of St. Benedict. Other activities will include a Mass with the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation in Snellville and a Mass celebrating the conclusion of the jubilee year on March 21, 1995.