Weston Priory — Weston Vermont

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We are a community of Benedictine monks, founded in 1953 by our brother, the late Abbot Leo Rudloff, of Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem. Inspired by a monastic tradition reaching back to the earliest centuries of the church, and shaped by the Rule of Saint Benedict, our life together centers on prayer, manual work, and hospitality.

Above all, we hope to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ together. Seeking to be, in Brother Leo's words, "an embassy of the Reign of God," we hope that we will, in some measure, foster the healing and reconciliation of the whole human family.

In our work, as in our prayer, we monks have evolved a style and a balance that seems best for us.

In the earliest years of the monastery, dairy farming was the primary means of support. Brothers did farmwork and, like the native Vermonters, made maple syrup in the spring.

As the community's experience evolved, however, we have come to encourage one another to develop those gifts that are both expressive of their persons, as well as other-enriching.

This approach to work, based on the recognition of gifts for the good of all, rather than on mere economic necessity or duty, has given the community an economy that is diversified, stable, serving, co-creative, and personal.

Today, besides forestry, gardening, sugaring, and apple orchards, the brothers are engaged in such work as woodworking, musical composition, weaving, ceramics, silverwork and enameling, and in the graphic arts.