New Norcia

New Norcia, WA, was created by Benedictine monks from Spain as a mission to the aborigines in 1847. At its peak, there were 80 monks at New Norcia and about 20 nuns. Today, there are only 9 monks and 1 nun. New Norcia is completely self-sufficient with no financial assistance from the Vatican. They operate a bakery (wonderful bread!) and used to make wine at the site. Today, the wine is made at a winery just south of New Norcia, then it matures in the wine cellars at New Norcia. The monks also make award-winning olive oil.

Throughout the years, the monks of New Norcia built a chapel, cottages, a hostel (now the hotel), colleges (schools) for boys and girls. They designed and built every building and everything in it, occasionally hiring locals to help. It's a beautiful place, and we were given a great tour by Trish, a Maori recently moved here from New Zealand. Anyone can stay at the monastery if they wish a quiet, retreat-like experience. The hotel is available for those who wish to make more noise!

Many children come to NN for "school camps," where they learn about the art that is housed there (the gallery and museum have hundreds of paintings that were purchased in the early days of the monastery), about the history of the aborigines that the monastery ministered to and about the history of the monastery and monks that started it all and continue it to this day.

Hotel at New Norcia. Very small rooms, with shared baths--however, all the rooms on the front side open up onto the veranda and some of the rooms have fireplaces. A great place to visit, although I'd recommend the spring or summer--it was pretty cold in the rooms today.

Inside the chapel at New Norcia. This one of the stations of the cross. Each station is multi-layered and textured. It started out as the brown layer, then the black was added, then the white. The artist was at liberty to make it relevant for the day (early 1960s) so one of the stations has several figures, including an Eskimo and an astronaut.

This is the organ at the front of the chapel--one of only two Moser organs in Australia. Imported from Germany, there are 2000 pipes (all these that you see are decorative), and an addition had to be quickly put on to house the organ. It gets played every Sunday at mass. When the pipes arrived in Australia in the 1940s, it took three months to convince customs officials that they were not trying to smuggle in German weapons in the pipes.

A view of St. Gertrude, the school that was built for girls. Both St. Gertrude and St. Ildephonsus have fabulous acoustics in their chapels, and now many musical groups use them for recordings.

The altar in the chapel at St. Gertrude's. The domed ceiling makes this the absolute best place for a concert. Would have loved to have our women's chorus sing in St. Gertrude's!

It was a good day, and we all have a lot of respect for this group of monks and nuns who dedicated their lives to serving the aboriginals without taking away the traditions that were so important to that group. This kind of life may not work for me, but they live what they preach every day.