BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

CONYERS--The 900th anniversary of the founding of the Cistercian order was celebrated in Citeaux, France, in March and the contemplative branch represented in Georgia joined in the historic events.

The abbot, several monks and a group of lay Catholics attended, all affiliated with the Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, which is a community of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (OCSO), commonly known as Trappists.

There are four other Cistercian branches. All five took part in a gathering March 17-19 in Citeaux designed to promote dialogue and deepen understanding among their respective members worldwide. The "synaxis" was planned by Dom Armand Veilleux, OCSO, a former Conyers abbot.

A Mass in Citeaux March 21 brought together 750 to 800 Cistercian monks and nuns from Europe, Africa, Asia and the U.S.

A continent away on March 22, Pope John Paul II celebrated a Mass in Nigeria for two million people, beatifying a parish priest who became a Trappist, Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi.

Founded in 1098, the "new monastery" at Citeaux represented an ardent desire on the part of its founders, Robert, Alberic and Stephen, who were Benedictine monks, to return to a purer and simpler life based upon the Rule of St. Benedict. It became "a new form of monastic existence," in the words of Pope John Paul II.

"By solitude they sought to live for God at the same time as they built a community of brothers. Through renunciation, in an austere and laborious life, they strove to advance the growth of the new human being," the pope wrote in a letter to Cistercians this March.

"The charism of Citeaux spread rapidly. It made a very important contribution to the history of spirituality and culture in the West. Through the twelfth century, the 400 monasteries in existence were centers of intense spiritual life throughout Europe."

The Cistercians have contributed to the church a "deep spirituality...centered around the human being as the image and likeness of God," liturgical reform, art and an architecture which helps people to enter into prayer and cultivate the interior life, the pope said.

In the modern world, the pope added, there is a renewed interest in Cistercian spirituality and culture, and the church expects Cistercian monasteries today to be signs of communion, places of hospitality for those who are spiritually hungry, and schools of faith.

Conyers resident Jackie Rychlicki, who was invited to the synaxis on behalf of lay people affiliated with Cistercian monasteries, said, "It is the first time in the history of the order that we have been invited as members of the Cistercian family."

Rychlicki, who helped 12 years ago to found the Associate Oblates of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit, was "shocked as well as overjoyed to see that (the pope's letter) made mention of the emergence of lay people associated with Cistercian spirituality."

"In a 900-year history, we are so young," she said. "Twelve years is nothing."

During the meeting she "got an immersion in the Cistercian spirit as it is lived in all five branches of the order. That was really important for me."

Unlike groups who associated with monasteries to share manual labor or help with financial needs, the associate oblates formed to learn Cistercian spirituality in light of their lay vocations and to affiliate in appropriate ways with the contemplative community.

Speaking of the experience in Citeaux, Rychlicki said she presented the oblates' profession statement and spoke briefly of their acceptance of the Rule of St. Benedict and their desire to learn from Cistercians the value of silence and solitude.

"If you will teach us the characteristics that help you through the days of joy and sorrow, we can learn to apply those same characteristics to the needs of our lives," she said to the contemplative Cistercians. On March 21 she and 11 others from Georgia were able to attend the anniversary Mass.

Dom Bernard Johnson, OCSO, abbot of the Conyers monastery, described the Citeaux anniversary as "an experience of a lifetime."

"It was just a wonderful day," the abbot said. Following the Mass, the celebration continued. "We had a seated dinner, a high French dinner. There was a feeling that isn't it wonderful to be a Cistercian."

Among the hundreds gathered were university professors, missionaries, monks and nuns, some wearing habits designed in the Middle Ages, Dom Johnson said. Vietnamese and Africans were there, he said, in addition to those from Western and Eastern Europe and the U.S.

"They were quite aware of our differences, but stressing our unity," he added. "It was a marvelous show of Cistercian life today."

Although the celebration took place at the site of the first Cistercian monastery near Dijon, the original structure is gone and the church where the anniversary Mass was celebrated is brand new. Participants were housed throughout the community, while French monks came on the day of the Mass. A pilgrimage carried the relics of St. Robert back to Citeaux for the occasion, retracing his original journey on foot from his Benedictine monastery.

Dom Johnson, who has been in the order for 52 years, 21 spent at the generalate in Rome, described the overall condition of the order as healthy.

"As in any human body, there are parts that are arthritic and a little atrophied, but parts that are vigorous," he said. "In general, it is very vigorous and healthy."

The two largest Trappist monasteries in the world are located in the U.S., in Gethsemani, Ky. and Spencer, Mass. The monastery in Conyers is the sixth largest. At the same time, the order is strong in the Philippines, Indonesia and Nigeria, the abbot said. Trappists now outnumber the branch known simply as Common Cistercians, who are in active ministry.

Men who approach the monastery in Conyers today longing to become monks "are older people," the abbot said.

"They have been out in the world. Simplicity is nothing they fear. They want some order in their life. They want a prayer life. They want the community."

He reflected that the vitality of the contemplative Cistercians comes, in his experience, from its faithfulness to the charism of the founders who sought simplicity, solitude, silence and a share in Christ's poverty.

"I think the reason why we are healthy today is we never, ever questioned our orientation toward simplicity and the intense search for God."