On 21 March 1950, the
Feast of Saint Benedict, the monastery of Our Lady of the Valley in Lonsdale,
Rhode Island was ravaged by a devastating fire. The original wing was
destroyed; the church was rendered structurally unsound and would have to be
demolished. The community of 140 monks was homeless.
Well before the fire the
monks had been searching for a new location that would insure their solitude
and economic stability, since the population in the area around the monastery
had increased considerably. And by 1949 the community had purchased a large agricultural
property, Alta Crest Farms in Spencer, Massachusetts. The 1950 fire merely
accelerated the community's projected move. In God's providence the end of one
story became the seed for a new one.
