Featured News

Considerations on 150 Years at Cool Spring

Last Friday evening I was on my way to the retreat house, aware that there would be visitors on the property to see the Civil War battlefield--from a distance. They were not to intrude upon the farming operations that have transformed the battlefield from a place of violence and death to new growth … Continue Reading...

Welcome to Holy Cross Abbey

The Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Cross was born out of fire. When the monastery of Our Lady of the Valley in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, tragically and spectacularly burned to the ground on the night of March 21, 1950, the monks of the abbey were left without a home.

While the abbot of Our Lady of the Valley, Dom Edmund Futterer, labored to re-establish his displaced community at a new site at Spencer, Massachusetts, plans developed for a new foundation. Land was found in the ... Read More

A Note From The Abbot

20 July, 2014: The Solemnity of Christ, the King of the Universe, falls on the Thirty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time; once we have reached the Sixteenth Sunday, as we have this Sunday, we are about half way through Ordinary Time. As you realize we are more than half way through the year and have already passed the Summer Solstice; when we celebrate the Feast of the … Continue Reading...

News from the Abbey

Updates on Monday rather than on Sunday

I've usually updated Featured News on Saturday and A Word from the Abbot on Sunday. Of course, as you have probably noticed, … [Read More...]

16th Sunday, Year A, 20 July, 2014

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Abbot Robert Barnes presiding and preaching. Benediction of the Most … [Read More...]

Battle of Cool Spring, the Clarke County Historical Association and Br. James Sommers

18 July, 2014 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Cool Spring; and, as most of our readers realize that battle was … [Read More...]

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Take Part

You may join us here at the Abbey by a sojourn in our Retreat House for a silent retreat, as a visitor to our Gift Shop or as a family member visiting a member of the community. You can assist at Mass … Find Out More...

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Visit Us

  Whatever your faith or search may be, whether you want to pause for a moment in our church or join us for one of the monastic services or the mass, to visit our Monastery Gift Shop where our own … Find Out More...

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Retreat House

"Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, 'I came as a guest, and you received Me'" (Matthew 25:35) Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, Chapter 53 Rooms in our … Find Out More...

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Cool Spring Natural Cemetery

The Shenandoah River flows lazily along of the base of Virginia’s Great Blue Ridge here at Cool Spring Natural Cemetery nestled in Virginia’s northern Shenandoah Valley. Eagles and herons fly above … [Read More...]

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History

The Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Cross may have been founded in 1950 but our roots run deep. It is not an exaggeration to boast a kinship to the New Monastery, as it was first called, the Abbey of … [Read More...]

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