Trappists, in deference to the explicit wish of the bishop, will not encourage the faithful to attend Mass at their monastery.
The Prior and his monks pledged to honour this agreement out of obedience and for the sake of peace. Even so, Fr. Franz could not help thinking that the Poverello of Assisi would probably have been much more hospitable and accommodating of Mariastern than his Bosnian sons.
Hop and Malt God-Sustaining
(Toast: Much good may it do you!)
It took a great deal of labour before Mariastern was fully established. The Prior administered his community mainly by example. At the same time he was constantly on the look-out for more rational ways of doing things, unafraid to experiment or give new inventions a try. For example, he studied professional literature on breweries and brewing. When he could not find what he was looking for he visited several breweries in Austria to study the matter on the spot. Once he had made himself knowledgeable, he implemented what he had learned.
Abbot Francis:
“Our brewery was so designed as to provide space for storing grain under the attic. Our horses took the barley up to attic level where it could easily be offloaded. From storage it was poured down through three openings on to three interconnected malting floors and then emptied into tubs to soak. The necessary water was pumped up from the river to all sectors: tubs, brewing copper and beer cellars. The fully germinated barley fell from the malting floor into the first drying kiln and from there to the second floor. Finally, the finished malt poured out through an opening in the bottom of the last kiln. From there it was taken to ice stores which we built into the hill, one for each cellar.”
The Great Gospodin
It was not just the beer the Trappists brewed or the flower and saw mills they operated, nor even the range of workshops they maintained which earned them recognition. The reputation Mariastern enjoyed was owed in the first place to the popularity of its Prior. He was known to lead his monks in prayer and work. He never asked of others, including the hired hands, what he did not do himself. Mention must also be made of the name he had gained for himself as a natural health practitioner.
Abbot Francis:
“The favourite name they gave me was velik hedschim, the great doctor. They brought their sick from all over the country, transporting them on horseback, ox cart or sleigh. Those who came from Dalmatia and Herzegovina sometimes spent several days on the road before they knocked on our door. Sick people were transported to Mariastern from as far as Austrian Croatia! When I traveled through Bosnia I always made sure I carried my homeopathic kit.”
His own health, as we have noticed, had never been robust. After all, it was for reasons of ill health that he had to interrupt his seminary studies and renounce his wish to go to the North American missions. As parish priest in Haselstauden he had purchased a burial site because he expected to die young. Finally, he had entered Mariawald precisely to prepare for death. Even though, God had other plans. Fr. Franciscus, as his fellow monks at Mariawald called him, recovered, thriving, as he said, on the frugal Trappist diet and work in the fresh air. After four years he was judged fit to make a new foundation in the Balkans. He did remain vulnerable, though, for the rest of his life. He could not travel at sea without becoming seasick. He contracted malaria in the Roman campagna and in Croatia and Bosnia frequently suffered from bouts of fever. Personal health issues led him to take a keen interest in the sufferings of others and in natural cures. Having only little confidence in school medicine, he became a staunch advocate of homeopathy. In Bosnia, he was able to help many people who could not afford a doctor any more than the Trappists could. In time, he made the acquaintance of Pastor Sebastian Kneipp of Woerishofen (Germany), for whose natural health methods he had the highest regard.
There were other reasons why the Prior of Mariastern created a stir. He himself once overheard a Turk say to another: “You can learn more from these monks than in Vienna. I have spent several days in Vienna but did not see so many extraordinary things as I see here.” Another time a Turkish friend asked quite seriously if the Prior’s head was not bursting from all the things it absorbed and remembered. But more astounding than his vast knowledge and various skills was the sight of him working with his own hands. People could not trust their eyes when they spied him bending over a laundry tub with his sleeves rolled up, or, armed with chopper, axe or pick, helping to lay a road. “A Gospodin (boss, lord) does not work!” they objected. “A Gospodin has others to work for him!”
Abbot Francis:
“The sheer size and beauty of our monastery (compared with the hovels in which they themselves lived) impressed people, especially when the sun dipped our many windows in the bright light reflected across the valley. Strangers believed that Mariastern was the residence of a great and powerful Gospodin. Perhaps it hoarded a precious and inaccessible treasure! Sometimes it happened that when these people wanted to know from our hired hands where I was, they did not believe when they were told that I was the one working with the Brothers or Bosnian labourers. “A ti radis (you work also)?’ The Turks do not think highly of manual labour particularly when it means working with soil or doing some menial job … – Later, when the Pasha had become more approachable he also began to wonder about our lifestyle – work, diet, celibacy, etc. Once he asked me quite seriously: ‘What profit will all this be to you when you die?’ I answered him with another question: ‘Look at your self. You now cling to wives and money! When you die, you will have to part with everything you possess. What reward will you have then? We are not attached to anything in this world but renounce many goods before we die. Therefore we die easy.’ He preferred not to answer but stared into space. Only God knows what went on in his mind.”
Thunderclouds over the Balkans
Serbs and Turks continued to clash. Bosnia was in a state of permanent turmoil or emergency. The Catholic Church in Banjaluka had been burnt down, not so much out of hatred for religion but from resentment against the hated Pasha. Mariastern was spared and for the time being its monks were safe. For one, they had a powerful protector:
“St. Joseph holds his hand over us, but we also do our part to avoid dangerous situations. For example, when we drive the long distance to the border to meet new postulants we always take armed guards with us. Until now no one has come to harm.”
The frequent political skirmishes were one thing to worry about; malaria was another. The Prior went several weeks at a time to Meran or Bozen in Tyrol to recuperate, but even then he was busy with soliciting vocations. At one time he recruited twelve candidates. He instructed them to wait for him in Agram on their way to Mariastern; he would meet them to take them safely across the border. By the late 1870’s, Mariastern had developed to such an extent that it could have become an abbey even then.
1877 was a turbulent year for the Balkans. Russia declared war on the Turks while Bulgaria was made a Principality and placed under Russian protection. Though Mariastern was not directly affected by these power shifts, the general political unrest hovered like a dark cloud also over the monastery. But thanks to God’s blessing and St. Joseph’s continued protection the monks carried it off well. As their institutions flourished, their reputation spread. Self-reliance and sustainability were top priorities. Several additions were made to the monastery complex: a bone (and flint) mill to make meal for fodder and manure; a new kiln in a location where better clay for brickmaking was available; a row of six houses, built as shelters for farmhands and timber men along the road to the woods. The Trappists of Mariastern were the first to plant the potato, known in Bosnia by its Frankish name “Krummbirn”. (crooked pear). Occasionally, they received aid from outside, for example when Vienna sent – at a hint from the Prior – a shipment of young fruit trees: “compliments of the ministry of foreign affairs”.
Abbot
