This item about a Benedictine nun drawing spiritual lessons from cheese-making might just be the Platonic ideal of a Rod Dreher blog post. Excerpt:
Mother Noella began her presentation with a slide of a gold-gilded icon of St. Benedict beholding a ray of sunlight. She also showed images of yeast budding in aging cheese, under an electron microscope. She played a video clip of a monk who said that his Benedictine vows of stability and obedience have made him a better cheesemaker. Mother Noella spoke about practicing her vocation by analogy. She likened the cheese ripening process to St. Benedict’s maturation, during three years of solitude. She also suggested that traditional cheeses are losing their souls, largely due to the centralization of production, just as centralization can undermine diversity in monastic life. She showed pictures of her scraping endangered fungi from cave walls in France. She invited us to imagine St. Benedict as a young boy, living alone in a cave. After three years of contemplating God, he left the cave to found monastic communities, his particular vocation. And rising to that occasion, emerging from that cave of voluntary solitude, he looked at the sun. Sister Noella brought her talk on spiritual and professional integration home–to St. Benedict’s ray of light, in the microscopic light of ripening cheese.
Is it possible to buy cheese made from this convent, the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, CT, anywhere? Because I’d sure like to support these holy women and their good work. And I’d like to eat some good cheese, too. Check out this image of St. Benedict eating with his monks; I found it on a foodie site called Gherkins & Tomatoes, accompanying a post about monks and eating.
posted April 28, 2010 at 7:42 am
They sell all they make almost immediately through the gift shop, you have to physically present yourself or be a guest at the right time. Their charism is hospitality Rod so given you’re not that far away now.. . . They have family quarters there if you’re very nice and book ahead.
You have a connection to the Abbey you’re not aware of. I linked to one of your posts (St. Benedict/Alisdair MacIntyre)in my application for a Monastic Internship there in 2008. Was accepted and flew to the US helped the nuns make the cheese.
“Co-incidences are spiritual puns” GK Chesterton
posted April 28, 2010 at 8:29 am
Oh, listen, Rod, if you haven’t been up to Regina Laudis, you need to get up there. Truly a beautiful place. Take your family. I went up there a couple summers ago to visit a friend of mine who was an intern. Do you know about the internship program they have there? You can learn cheese, welding, Gregorian chant, animal husbandry, weaving… Just amazing. And all these works are freighted with the kind of spiritual rigor that you note above. The sisters are truly remarkable people and the interns are fascinating as well. One thing to beware of in rural Connecticut: Lyme disease. I picked up a tick when we were there and came down with Lyme. My wife insisted they must keep these ticks on hand to attack the Orthodox who visit. Indulted dual-processionist here-ticks!
posted April 28, 2010 at 9:01 am
And now that you’re back on the east coast, you should take the fam up to Quebec for a good, long, weekend of eating and hanging out, be it in Montreal or in the environs—including the Benedictine Abbaye Saint-Benoît-du-Lac cheese factory.
From the Globe and Mail: “The monks started their cheese making with a blue called Ermite, but today Mr. Pruneau and 11 other full-time employees produce nine cheeses ranging from pressed ricotta to aged Gruyère-style wheels. Their other famous blue, Bleu Bénédictin, made since 2000, is an award-winner across Canada, most recently winning the blue-cheese category in the 2006 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/bleu-bndictin-and-ermite-cheese/article1393268/
Then, of course, there’s the famous Oka cheese (incl. raw-milk versions), originally made by Trappist monks, although they’ve since sold the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac to a non-profit.
And although the cheese on this dish isn’t generally, mmm, grand, your kids should at least try poutine. . . .
posted April 28, 2010 at 9:10 am
The info about the gift shop is buried in the website; look in the hospitality area. In the list of wares, there is a PBS video called the “Cheese Nun” which was filmed there. This is great. I’m driving the family from Philadelphia to Boston in a few days, hopefully we can stop by for a visit.
posted April 28, 2010 at 10:27 am
So the Monty Python Jesus had it right all along: Blessed Are The Cheesemakers (and other manufacturers of dairy products).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiDmMBIyfsU
[Warning: some not so blessed language in this.]
posted May 4, 2010 at 10:05 am
Thank you for sharing this lovely story and beautiful painting. There’s something so idyllic and romantic about cheesemaking nuns or monks!