The Monastery of Christ in the Desert is a Roman Catholic Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 belonging to the English Province of the Subiaco Congregation of Benedictine monasteries.

The monastery is completely surrounded by miles of undisturbed wilderness amidst the Chama Canyon wilderness area 75 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

. It is accessible by Forest Road 151, a 13 mile dirt road off of US route 84. The geographical co-ordinates of the monastery are 36°22′40.80"N 106°40′49.80"W.

The monastery was founded in 1964 by a monk of Mount Savior Monastery in New York State, Fr. Aelred Wall OSB.

The original monastery was designed by George Nakashima

George Nakashima

George Katsutoshi NakashimaGeorge Katsutoshi NakashimaGeorge Katsutoshi Nakashima( was a Japanese-American woodworker, architect, and furniture maker who was one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design and a father of the American craft movement...

, the famous Japanese-American architect and woodworker. The chapel is renowned for its beauty and was praised by Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...

 as the most perfect monastic chapel he had ever visited.

Christ in the Desert follows the Benedictine life without an external apostolate. It has a guesthouse in which men and women can stay and join the monks in the chapel to share in the monastic Divine Office and in the Mass.

In addition to maintaining the guesthouse, the monks manage a giftshop of books and religious items, which is accessible online and by mail order. The monks also work in agriculture, crafts, computer work and maintenance of the grounds and facilities.

Christ in the Desert has three dependent monasteries. In Mexico, La Soledad near San Miguel de Allende, and St. Mary and All the Saints, in Xalapa. In Chicago USA, Holy Cross Monastery. These monasteries also observe the Benedictine life with no apostolate other than a guesthouse.

The monastery maintains one of the largest private solar power

Solar power

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

 systems in the US, which provides its only source of electricity.

The monastery comprises men from many nations. English is the common language of the house.

Television Program "The Monastery"

In 2006 the monastery was the setting for a TLC documentary program entitled "The Monastery" (cf. TLC series web site). The documentary was produced by Tiger Aspect of the UK for the TLC cable network in the US.

The series followed the experiences of five laymen who lived in the monastery and observed the monastic way of life for forty days. The series was filmed in early 2006 and was originally broadcast in five episodes in the US on the TLC network in Oct-Nov 2006.

Internet Pioneers: The Scriptorium @ ChristDesert

In 1995 the monastery published a web site -- www.christdesert.org -- that gained international fame and became one of the world's most visited web sites in the years 1995-1997. The monastery and their web scriptorium made the front page of numerous publications worldwide in feature stories distributed via the AP wire (in 1995) and the NY Times wire (in 1996). Print coverage included page one of the Sunday New York Times, a full color double page spread in USA Today, and the lead in a cover story in Time Magazine. Television feature stories ran on CNN International, CBS Sunday Morning, ABC World News Tonight and Brazil's Fantastico.

The monastery's web scriptorium led to the foundation of an independent research project called NextScribe

NextScribe

NextScribe is a non-profit organization that conducts research and development in the field of Computer Supported Spiritual Development . The founder of NextScribe pioneered CSSD at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in 1994, and NextScribe continues to conduct research in the field in...

. NextScribe conducts research in Computer Supported Spiritual Development (CSSD) with a particular emphasis on remaking lay spiritual community according to the wisdom of the tradition of St. Benedict.

External links

• Monastery of Christ in the Desert
• Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert, the Sister House of Nuns near Christ in the Desert
• Subiaco Benedictine Congregation, the congregation of which Christ in the Desert is an autonomous Abbey
• Monastery of the Holy Cross, Chicago USA, dependent monastery of Christ in the Desert
• TLC Series "The Monastery", a documentary program set at Christ in the Desert
• NextScribe, an organization conducting research in Computer Supported Spiritual Development (CSSD) that has its roots at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.
• Pictures of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.
• Prayerbuddy is a NextScribe research project conducted in cooperation with the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.