MONASTERY OF THE POBLET

 

Poblet is a Cistercian monastery whose monks, since its foundation in 1150, have followed

the Rule of Saint Benedict. Closed down due to the Spanish State's laws in 1835, the

monastery was refounded in 1940 by Italian monks of the same Order. Poblet belongs

to the Cistercian Congregation of the Crown of Aragon, along with Santa Maria de Solius

and nunneries such as Santa Maria de Vallbona and Santa Maria de Valldonzella. Today

the monastic community of Poblet is composed of 28 professed monks, 1 regular oblate, 2

novices and 1 familiar.

The success of the Cistercian adventure is what actually accounts for Poblet. Cister was founded in 1098, and Poblet in 1151, less than a hundred years later. Both the 12th and 13th centuries are essential to the history of our monastery. Most rooms and buildings were, in fact, finished during those centuries : a space, both beautiful and functional, whereby to seek God. Such a space has come down to us virtually intact. The 14th century was a century of great achievements, but also that of the decline, slow but sure. We must point out that the known records of the time, and which refer to the private life of the community of Poblet, don’t show any noticeable deviations from the original ideals of the founders of Cister and, likewise, the founders of Poblet, who originated from Fontfroide. In fact, this, which is the true history of Poblet, has never been written and probably never will. The history of the monks who, day after day, made the growth and continuity of the house possible, the domus Populeti. Thus we could explain the succession of the days and years over the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries: Poblet, the institution, the community, its monks, all hasten to find a new visage, new features, forms different from what they intimately live in their hearts. Not always, though, will they succeed in doing so with the transparency and vigour of the first ideal. The 19th century will sow, in a society going through radical changes, the seed of a future recovery, in spite of the abandonment and subsequent plunder of the monastery. A recovery that, along with the monks in 1940, brought back that old way of life, purer, truer, more deeply Benedictine and, therefore, more evangelical. Today the monks, the ancestral ones’ heirs, are perpetually grateful for this legacy, because authenticity is possibly one of the most important values that we can and must offer the men and women of our time.