3/25/2010
Monks' business adapting to times
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| Monks’ business adapting to times |
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Ed Langlois
LAFAYETTE — The trend toward digital archiving and the sluggish economy have eroded the way a community of Oregon monks makes its living. But to seek new customers, the Trappists of Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey are using the very medium that has hurt their bookbinding industry.
The Trappist bindery Web site — www.bookbindery.org — includes an e-mail link and a PDF order form. The monks are asking everyone they can think of to include a Web link to the Trappists.
"We're working to adapt," says Brother Chris Balent, who designed the bindery site. "We do the best we can. We're not businessmen, we're monks."
A steady base of about 30 colleges, especially Portland State University, has been the mainstay of the monks' book work. It's the largest of the enterprises at the abbey, also known for making fruitcake, managing a forest and storing wine for local vineyards.
But now the schools are turning more and more to putting periodicals, dissertations and other research in online collections.
"The students are demanding it," says Brother Gerald Mathison, assistant manager of Trappist Abbey Bookbindery.
Colleges and government agencies, another big customer, have faced years of budget cuts, so they are putting off re-binding damaged books, another staple of the abbey's bindery work.
"The impact on us has been huge," says Brother Gerald, a monk for 36 years. "It leaves us just sort of dangling there."
The abbey is not completely losing accounts, but the amount of work sent in by customers has plummeted. During the 1980s, the monks bound about 50,000 books per year. By 2000, the number slid to 40,000 and now it stands at 23,000.
The librarians send their regrets. That's a comfort, but the monks find themselves needing to be marketers for the first time, not something they came to the monastery to do.
"We have strengths that other binderies don't because we are small," Brother Chris says gamely. "We are not looking to just get thousands and thousands of books. We don't want quality to suffer and we want to treat each customer specially."
The Trappists still take special steps that the big binderies skip, like putting a curve in the stack of pages so that the book will open nicely. Librarians who come to tour the abbey facility don't leave without a fruitcake.
It all makes for customers who remain loyal for decades. The University of San Francisco has sent books here for 30 years. Portland State has been a customer for 40 years.
One of the abbey's most steady customers is the state of Nevada. This month, the monks received a stack of decaying leather-bound Nevada Senate records from the 1840s.
At one time, the abbey bound transcripts and documents for all the federal courts on the West Coast. But new regulations brought on a torrent of red tape, which would have interfered with monastic simplicity.
Cherished small customers are loyal to the abbey, too. The monks have become known as masters at rebinding family bibles worn by use. Father Martinus Cawley, a historian, specializes in hand-binding old books that are too fragile for machinery.
Bookbinding has a long tradition in monasticism. For 1,400 years, European monks were the chief practitioners of the art and preservers of western culture.
Bookbinding is an ideal monastic job, the Trappists explain.
"It's great work because so many guys touch the book," says Brother Todd Koesel, who marks and measures stacks of pages before they are sent into the glue.
Brother Albert Rudolph runs the press that prints the title on the book's spine. He's been doing that for more than 40 years. "Now I’m married to this machine," he says.
Father Dismas Gannon, the abbey's prior, checks in bindery orders. He recalls the start of the bindery 60 years ago in Pecos, N.M., before the Trappists relocated to Oregon in 1955. The work was done by hand then.
"It used to be quiet," Father Dismas says with a grin.
The bindery went modern about 20 years ago and the monks keep the computer-powered machines in top running order. The latest binding techniques are used here and Brother Gerald says the product has never been better.
But in the same way the church preserves its tradition, the Trappist bookbinders keep tools from the old days because they are still useful. A paper cutter that looks to be a century old still serves some purposes.
The monks cannot stop everything and meditate here. It is work, after all. But their labor and their prayer do feed one another and ideally, the two endeavors remain in balance.
"It's kind of a seamless thing," says Brother Todd. "The work and the prayer go together and everything fits. It's a matter of really being present at both."
There is anxiety as the work dries up. Still, some experts are raising concerns about the mad rush to digital archiving. Cyber-attacks and shifts in software over time make digital collections fragile, they say. Brother Gerald says that a few catastrophes may bring people back to hard copies.
He's the abbey's treasurer in addition to his bindery role. He can't help but suspect divine intervention when he sees the numbers and how they always manage to work out.
"It becomes very clear to me how the Lord is carrying this place," he says. "It's almost tangible."
Trappist abbey to host historical society
The 2010 Spring Event of the Oregon Catholic Historical Society is set for Saturday, April 17, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey near Lafayette.
Trappist Father Martinus Cawley, a historian, translator, and publisher, will share knowledge and experiences with attendees.
All historical society members, as well as family and friends, or anyone interested in Catholic history in Oregon, are invited to spend a spring day at the abbey and learn more about the Trappists' local and general history.
Before the current abbey was begun in 1955, another group of Trappists attempted to start a monastery in Oregon. In 1904 silent exiled monks from France had a go at starting a monastery on a ridge near the town of Jordan, between the Willamette Valley and the Cascade foothills.
The fate of the Jordan Trappists and other facts are likely to be discussed during the day, which starts at 9:30 a.m. with snacks and a welcoming statements. It ends with mid-day prayer at 12:30 p.m. There will not be a catered meal, but all are welcome to pack a lunch.
Cost is $15 for adults, and $10 for students. Questions may be directed to St. Mary Sister Charlene Herinckx, president of the historical society, at 503-906-1131, or Linda Duman, treasurer, at 503-394-3853. Registration forms have been mailed to all members and are due back to Duman, 43166 Thomas Dr., Scio, OR, 97374 by March 31.
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