New Melleray: Cistercian Monks Receiving
All as Christ and Preferring Christ Above All

Welcome to New Melleray Abbey. We are delighted that you are visiting our monastery.
On Holy Thursday, April 17, the Eucharist will be celebrated at 6:30 P.M. Good Friday services will begin at 3:00 P.M. on the 18th. The Easter Vigil will begin at 4:00 A.M., and a Day Mass will be celebrated at 10:00 A.M. on Easter Sunday, April 20th.
New Melleray is a community of Roman Catholic monks. We belong to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, commonly known as Trappists. Disciples of Jesus Christ, we join countless men and women who throughout fifteen hundred years have discovered the Rule of Saint Benedict to offer a challenging and effective way of living the Gospel. Our communal way of monastic life in the Cistercian tradition serves our desire to be wholly oriented to the experience of the living God.
Located southwest of Dubuque, Iowa, New Melleray was founded in 1849 by monks of our Order from Mount Melleray Abbey, Ireland. Like all monasteries, New Melleray Abbey is a school of charity. The monastery is a place where we learn to love God, to love ourselves, and to love each other. Together with its fertile farmland and rugged woodlands our monastery provides us with solitude and precious silence.
Through our guest house and other forms of monastic hospitality, we are happy to offer to our brothers and sisters who follow other paths, a place where they may find acceptance, peace, and prayer. Click on “Visit Us” for various ways to share in our way of life as a long-term guest living within the community.
With Trappist Caskets we support ourselves and supply employment to local men and women by making and selling simple wooden caskets and burial urns of exceptional quality.
Again, welcome to New Melleray’s home page. We invite you to explore our website to find out more about us. You might start by checking out one of these links.
What’s Happening at the Abbey
March Mildness
The past month has been quiet and normal. We did complete our mini-workshop on the Letter to the Hebrews, presented by Dr. Anthony Pagliarini of Notre Dame University....READ MORE
February Features
We were happy to welcome Fr. Brendan back on the 7th from his trip to Ireland to help facilitate the merger of three communities in that region. He had been superior at Mellifont...READ MORE
January's Jump into the New Year
On the Feast of the Epiphany, January 5th, we celebrated an annual Christmas meal with the sisters of Mississippi Abbey. This meal is provided through the generosity and kindness...READ MORE
December Denouement
Advent was a grace-filled season, leading us to the end of a year and the beginning of a new one. In our endings we discover our beginnings and know them for the first time (T.S....READ MORE
Notes from November
We began the month with a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of Mississippi Abbey. Several monks went to join the sisters in a Eucharistic celebration, with Fr....READ MORE