This is Dom Brendan's first visit to Gethsemani as father immediate. Gethsemani is in the process of shifting its motherhouse, since our original founding house, Melleray, in France, is dwindling. Gethsemani and New Melleray have agreed to the current arrangement, but await the approval of the General Chapter later this year to make it official.

The relationship between "mother" and "daughter" houses in the OCSO is very important, since it allows an outside, objective perspective on a house's current state of affairs. The visitor, usually the father immediate, conducts interviews with everyone in the community and writes up a "visitation card" summarizing strengths, weaknesses, and problems, and suggests courses of action which could be taken to improve the situation of the daughter house.

New Melleray was founded in 1849, about 6 months after Gethsemani, by a group of Irish monks from Mount Melleray abbey.
Click here to visit New Melleray's website.