The Monastery

The Monastery of the Holy Cross is a contemplative community of monks located in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Illinois. We live a traditional Benedictine life, seeking God through prayer, silence, work and hospitality. Our daily horarium is centered on the celebration of Holy Mass and the full Divine Office, which we sing in Latin and English using Gregorian chant.

The History

In the mid-1980’s, a group of three missionary priests, who had served in Haiti and Brazil, came together to address some of the challenges of evangelization in the modern world. They recognized that the mission requires a strong liturgical life as a foundation, as well as the supports of a witnessing community. These reflections led to the founding of the Monastery of the Holy Cross in 1988. The goal remained evangelization, but the mission had moved from areas of the developing world to the modern ‘desert’ of the city, beset by violence, alienation and spiritual poverty.
In 1990, Joseph Cardinal Bernadin invited the community to Chicago to create an oasis of silence and prayer, witnesses to the contemplative life. In the year 2000, the community entered the 1500-year-old tradition of Benedictine monasticism as a dependent house of the Abbey of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico. From its modest beginnings, the community has grown and now numbers eight monks. The monastery was canonically elevated to the status of an autonomous house in December of 2011 by Bruno Marin, OSB, former Abbot President of our congregation.

The Activities

• In collaboration with Schola Laudis, our professional choir-in-residence, the monastery hosts regular Solemn Vespers liturgies in Latin which feature Gregorian chant, Renaissance masterworks, and new compositions.
• The monastery serves as the spiritual home for a community of secular oblates. This community, which presently numbers more than 60 members, meets once a month.
• Our guesthouse consists of three private apartments. Individual guests may reserve a room for retreat, and families or other groups may reserve an entire apartment.
• We operate a small gift shop which carries books, CDs, rosaries, icons, and monastic-made food and gift items.
• We serve as the exclusive local distributor for Abbey Caskets, a work of St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana, which offers simple and dignified handmade wooden caskets and crematory urns.