Mariannhill Monastery – a gentle space of beauty and peace

I'm look­ing at the incred­ible interior of the church of the Monastery of Mariannhill and real­ising why, des­pite its being years since last I was here, it had such a pro­found effect on me as a 16-year-old (See pho­tos at this link).

During my third year of high school I sang with a choir that recor­ded Franz Schubert's mass no 2 in G stand­ing within this sanc­tu­ary. It was one of the most intense exper­i­ences of my life. The sound we man­aged to evoke in this place of God was not only incred­ible, it was impress­ive and, as young people only begin­ning to form opin­ions and views on the world, I felt I had touched some­thing within and without that I would endeav­our to recre­ate again and again in my life.

Set in amongst sprawl­ing hills Mariannhill lies in a densely green, intense land­scape swept by forests and sheltered, leafy neigh­bour­hoods out­side Durban. Despite being close to the indus­trial parts of Westmead, the Monastery may as well lie cen­tur­ies in the past. Enter its grounds and one is imme­di­ately trans­por­ted out of the fast-paced world and con­stant nag­ging ele­ments of mod­ern society.

A trip to the gar­dens, tea and veget­able gar­dens and mon­as­tery is a haven for the soul. The old build­ings, slowed pace and peace­ful sur­rounds are without fail a balm to the soul, and one does not need to be here with reli­gious intent to bene­fit. My exper­i­ence pro­du­cing a voice within a choir of incred­ibly tal­en­ted young musi­cians was enough to estab­lish the Mariannhill Monastery as a cher­ished memory.

Mariannhill Monastery was foun­ded in 1882 by trap­pist Monks who cre­ated an impress­ive col­lec­tion of archi­tec­ture, crafts­man­ship and design. Trappist monks are a con­tem­plat­ive Roman Catholic reli­gious order fol­low­ing the rule of St Benedict, and a branch of the Cistercians They speak only when neces­sary and idle talk is strongly dis­cour­aged — even meals are usu­ally taken in con­tem­plat­ive silence whilst they listen to a read­ing. The silence is not a restric­tion how­ever, but rather a wish to give space to what mat­ters. There are thought to be around 170 trap­pist mon­as­ter­ies in the world, home to 2500 trap­pist monks and 1800 trap­pist nuns.

The cathed­ral is a play of light as rays of sun pierce stained glass win­dows and bounce from the ceil­ings filled with fres­cos. The interior invites a moment of two of silent con­tem­pla­tion, whatever your spir­itual lean­ing. Set in the midst of this embel­lished sim­pli­city is a garden where tables are art­fully set in the shade of giant umkhulu trees. Every now and again there is the dis­tant sound of Gregorian chants, prac­tic­ally inaud­ible, more of a sug­ges­tion than an intru­sion that sets the tone of the garden and inspires those who visit here. It's a per­fect little piece of heaven in which one just hap­pens to also get a good meal.

A range of enti­cing home-made food includes muffins, veget­arian meals or rye open sand­wiches. Vegetables and salad comes from the veget­able garden, the rye bread is baked by the nuns at the Jabulani self-help scheme, who also pro­duce plain brown bread for sale to the local com­munity, and the milk and yogurt is from the monastery's own dairy – actu­ally two of them. The cheese is pro­duced on the oppos­ite side of the val­ley from the milk, by the Sisters of the Precious Blood. Both are pro­duced organ­ic­ally and cows grace effort­lessly on rather steep hills .

The Monastery Veggies and Herbs, run by a non-monk when last we were there, sup­plies fresh organic salad leaves and herbs not only to the tea garden at the mon­as­tery, but also to res­taur­ants in and around Durban. There are also a series of work­shops here where crafts, includ­ing candles, are produced.

The mon­as­tery has an inter­est­ing his­tory. By all accounts Prior Franz Pfanner, who then became Abbot, and who led the order was incred­ibly strict and the vow of silence was held by all. But, as inev­it­ably occurs when extrem­ism is involved, an upris­ing led to his being sus­pen­ded and a new order began that went on to estab­lish mis­sions sta­tions around the coun­try and the world. It was also very act­ive in the fight against apartheid, par­tic­u­larly with regards to the Group Areas Act.

But it is the silence, the essen­tial tran­quil­lity that seems to be innate in every form and almost engulfs the sur­round­ings, that makes Mariannhill mon­as­tery so incred­ible. There is a tour that includes lunch and many of the build­ings — the beau­ti­ful private gar­dens, the cathed­ral, vest­ments, church, and the museum.

Whilst trite when repro­duced in amongst this text per­haps, there is a line that cap­tures the essence of the mon­as­tery, set in the heart of the tea garden — 'You're closer to God's heart in a garden than any place else on earth' that pos­sibly describes the mon­as­tery best.

Website Links:
Marianhill Monastery Website: http://www.mariannhillmonastery.co.za/
The Monastery Tea Garden: http://www.monasteryteagarden.co.za/

Useful Links:
Durban Attractions
Things to Do in Durban
Durban Accommodation