As the tours come in each day, some of the people who work at Trappist Caskets believe their mission is much deeper than a typical business. “Sometimes it’s like they find us and I think it’s the work ...

The walnut planks used to make Caroline Found’s casket grew for 120 years in a quiet northeast Iowa forest. Tucked away behind a hulking limestone monastery, the tree was prayed over by the monks of ...

(RNS) — The Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey have always given away child caskets. Now they're offering adult caskets to people in need. (RNS) — They live secluded lives in a stone abbey near a ...

PEOSTA — Every morning before the sun comes up, Brother Joseph is beginning his day. Brother Joseph, a Trappist Monk, is up by 4:30 a.m., heading out to start work in the New Melleray Abbey’s garden.

Trappists, Sam Mulgrew tells me, “are very land-based.” We’re sitting in the office of Trappist Caskets, just a short walk from New Melleray Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa. Sam is a layman, not a monk, but he ...

All told, Trappist Caskets produces an average of 35 caskets a week. Although not all of the monks came to the abbey with prior woodworking skills, they and the new monks joining their ranks "are ...

Mondays are often hectic in the casket business, and today is no exception. By 10:00 A.M., the company has one premium black walnut casket, a shaped oak and a shaped pine to get out the door. Pickup ...

Every other Thursday at about 4:10 in the morning, the monks of New Melleray Abbey stand in a dark church, and, following a moment of silence, listen to the lone voice of our abbot offer the prayer ...

Trappist Caskets offers two models -- simple and premium. Simple caskets are smooth on all sides. Premium caskets feature complex raised-panel joinery and shaped lids. Both come in two shapes -- ...

They live secluded lives in a stone abbey near a privately owned forest in a rural part of eastern Iowa. But the Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey are not closed off from the world's troubles. Last ...