Monastery of the Holy Spirit

Monastery of the Holy Spirit was not what I expected. I expected a warm community of monks in a beautiful natural setting with a gorgeous chapel. We drove fairly out of our way to visit this spot, and it wasn't really worth it. The complex of buildings is quite cold and modern-looking. There is a gift shop and garden shop with nice home-made items, as well as items from around the world. The museum is just a few plaques about history on the wall that didn't really explain about the monastery. The monk here was very unfriendly and almost shouted at us that it was half an hour till closing. The grounds are pleasant but not beautiful. We walked to the chapel which has a nice blue light throughout from the blue stained glass windows. The decor though is not typical catholic decoration, but very sparse, with geometric stained glass. There was a monk inside who was also not friendly and didn't greet us or meet our eye. We were wondering what kind of religion this monastery represents but couldn't figure it out. It definitely isn't a warm and fuzzy spiritual practice. Overall this wasn't really a fun visit, and we left uninspired.

After looking this up, I found out that this monastery is a Trappist (Cistercian) monastery, which appears to be a branch of catholicism. The saints on the statues in the garden were ones I had never heard of though, and the decor in the chapel was quite different to typical catholic imagery. Sure enough, according to wikipedia, the Cistercians favor austere aesthetics and see church decoration as a distraction from piety. They believe in a life of prayer and working with their hands, and support themselves through selling fudge and fruitcake at the store on the property, supplying bonsai trees, and stained glass manufacturing. There are only about a dozen Trappist monasteries in the US, and the original Trappists who came to America and set up a monastery in Kentucky were from France.
We did not see the Retreat House garden, but it looks pretty on their website.

Directions

Monastery of the Holy Spirit is located at 2625 Highway 212, Conyers GA 30094, call (770) 483-7228.
Open Mon-Sat 10-5.

Click on map for interactive view