A dip in the Waters of Siloe

By Michael Patrick O’Brien–

When I was a young boy growing up at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, my family and I often attended the last monk chant of the evening, called compline. We usually got there a little early. My mother and sister went right to the chapel. As a male, however, I was allowed to go into the adjoining guesthouse.

My typical first guesthouse stop was to check the monks’ usually full cookie jar kept in the retreat house dining room. The guesthouse also had a well-stocked library, so I almost always went there next, chocolate chip cookie in hand. Sometimes other guests joined me, but often I had the place to myself.

The library also was a sitting room, with a couple of couches, several cushioned chairs, and some old reading lamps. The wood paneled walls displayed several historic photos of the monks and the monastery grounds. It was a simple but inviting and comfortable place to spend a few moments and eat a cookie.

The guest library also had some interesting books, two of which were particularly intriguing to a teen like myself. One was about maintaining healthy sexual relationships in marriage. I read it, of course, especially the parts about…well, you can guess. The other teen-intriguing book was about how the Vatican preserved and displayed the bodies of dead popes, including Saint Pius X.

The library also had a book with a chapter about the founding of the Utah monastery. During several visits to Huntsville, I returned to that book chapter—cookie in hand—again and again, never paying attention to the rest of the book or even who wrote it.

I enjoyed learning what life was like for the pioneering Utah monks. I particularly loved the book’s stories about the various ways the early Trappists dealt with the harsh Ogden Valley winter weather. For example, the chapter included this delicious tidbit: “One young monk, a lover of sleep and warmth, established himself in the hut which had been allotted to the little chicks and was kept at a constant temperature of eighty degrees.”

That unknown Trappist and I were kindred spirits. I too always was searching for ways to stay warm at Holy Trinity Abbey during the months of December and January. As a result, I always remembered the anecdote.

Many years later, when writing my own memoir about the abbey (Monastery Mornings, published in August 2021 by Paraclete Press), I searched for this chapter/anecdote again. I checked all the Utah monastery books and pamphlets I could find. No luck. None of them included my favorite story.

While doing research for a planned blog article about how displaced Chinese Trappists had visited Huntsville in the 1950s, I discovered that famous Kentucky monk Thomas Merton had written about these persecuted Asian monks in his history of the Cistercian order called The Waters of Siloe. I ordered a used copy.

When the book arrived, I sat down and opened the cover. I noticed a section in the table of contents about the founding of the Utah monastery. I turned to it and started to read it. To my utter surprise and delight, right there on page 248 was my beloved little story about the heat-seeking monk!

Unbeknownst to me, I had started reading Merton at age 14 at Holy Trinity Abbey.

I am no Merton expert, and even almost fifty years later I have read only a couple of his books, including The Seven Storey Mountain. I also just finished Jon Sweeney’s Thomas Merton: An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices, which I highly recommend as an excellent Merton starter book. I think I should read more Merton.

Perhaps I will start by diving back into The Waters of Siloe. As a curious teen, I confined myself to just one chapter. There may be some interesting things in the rest of the book. And I probably will need a few more cookies too.

*Mike O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His book Monastery Mornings (found here), about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, will be published by Paraclete Press (more information here) in August 2021.