Jul 2, 2009

A dot-com chant; Cash-strapped monasteries use Web to make ends meetBy Charles YooAJC.com

Georgia – More than half a century into a life at one monastery, Father Anthony Delisi is busy experimenting with fudge.

After chocolate, maple walnut and peach brandy, he’s unveiled the new eggnog flavor —- perfect for the season.

“We are looking to expand our industry, ” said the 78-year-old Trappist monk at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers.

Gone are those days when monks only needed hogs, sickles and rye seeds to survive. These men who have sworn to lead a life of poverty are facing a new, more convoluted reality shaped by e-commerce and globalization.

Roman Catholic monasteries that must be self-reliant have begun relying on Microsoft Excel and rosaries made in China.

Delisi and other monastery leaders sound a lot like chief operating officers of a company testing new products.

And their strategies?

They mail out glossy gift catalogs to take advantage of the retail peak season. This year, the monastery has launched an “e-store, ” bridging customers and their products via a click.

Success is more crucial than ever now that rising health care costs are dogging even clerics. A dozen of the 48 monks in Rockdale are senior citizens in need of medical assistance, notably home aides. In the past year, the seminary has lost four elders, yet gained 10 new members.

“It’s not about making a dollar. It’s not about a bunch of monks making money for Christmas, ” said Brother Callistus Crichlow. “We’re searching for the right industry to pay the bills.”

Perched on a wooded section that is now part of the newly minted Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area, the monastery is a breathing relic from the Medieval Age with men in robes who have sworn to a spiritual life of obedience, chastity and poverty. Part of the Cistercian order, the monks have tried virtually everything to make money, from cattle to hay to poultry. They once tried raising ostriches.

As of now, the Abbey Store, the monastery’s gift shop, is a sure bet. It brings in $600,000 a year and continues to grow each year.

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