The Monastery

Our monastery is in a former holiday colony in the mountain in the municipality of Dumenza, province of Varese and it belongs to the diocese of Milan. It is at 1000 meters above the “Lago Maggiore”. The present building is the fruit of radical renovation, adaptation and enlargement of the existing structures. The juridical form of the community is that of a Benedictine priory “sui iuris”; it belongs to the law of the diocese and it relies on the Italian Province of the Sublacense-Cassinese Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict. The brothers’ life refers to the Rule of St. Benedict, as well as to their own Constitutions. Now they are fifteen brothers in the community, nine of them are solemnly professed (including three priests), two simple professed, two novices and two postulants. The guests can participate in the whole community liturgy (5:20am: mattutino, 6:45am: lodi, 8:30am: Eucharist, 12:15pm: sesta, 2:45pm: nona, 5:45pm: vespri, 9:00pm compieta). Besides to the classical ambiences (church, refectory, capitulary room, cloister, library, monks’ cells, reception, parlors, kitchen and laundry room), the monastery has a guesthouse (9 rooms), a meeting room, a saloon for the guests, laboratories of antique book-repairing, of iconography, and of other craft activities. The monastery is surrounded by a large park, where there are two separate structures, used to host self-service groups (about 25 people).

The History

Our community was founded in October 1989, by a group of ten monks from the Abbey Santa Maria Assunta of Praglia (in the diocese of Padua), and admitted to the Church of Milan by the Archbishop, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. In July 1990, after a starting period in Desio, the community moved to Canzo in the Convent of San Francesco. In October 1993, they moved again to the Abbey of St. John Baptist in Vertemate, in the diocese of Como, under the guidance of the bishop Alessandro Maggiolini. Due to some problems regarding to the ownership of that monastery, the community decided to move one last time to a more stable and suitable place for its life, in the municipality of Dumenza in the province of Varese. On 12 August 2002, during the Holy Mass, Cardinal Martini blessed the cross that started the new stability. After long restructuration works, the brothers moved permanently to the new monastery in November 2005. The prior, brother Adalberto Piovano guided the community during all these years, until October 2010, when the brothers elected brother Luca Fallica as their prior and reconfirmed him in November 2016.

The Activities

• Antique book-repairing laboratory;
• Iconographic workshop;
• Hospitality, with the possibility of meetings, spiritual retreats, guided “Lectio  Divina”;
• Editorial collaborations;
• Handicraft workshop (pottery, leather);
• Vegetable and fruit garden;
• Housework (cooking, laundry, taking care of the internal and the external parts of the monastery).