The community of Brialmont (Belgium) has been aware for some time of its situation of fragility. The superior, M. Marie-Pascale Dran, and the sisters, with the help of the Father Immediate (Dom Xavier Frisque13, superior ad nutum of Orval) and the Commission for the future, after serious consideration, have judged that it is not possible for the community to recover from this situation, and that it must be closed. The Abbot General and his Council have followed the situation

Diocese press release (17 February 2026) Since 1969, at the Merci-Dieu monastery in Saint-Jean-d'Assé, near Le Mans (France), sisters have been living a life of prayer, hospitality and craftsmanship, weaving and making liturgical vestments (chasubles, stoles, albs, etc.). Their life is governed by the Rule of Saint Benedict. The nuns have realised that the buildings are now unsuitable due to their age and condition. Therefore, after a year of communal discernment, in consulta

After more than two centuries of Cistercian presence, the community of monks at Port du Salut (diocese of Laval, Mayenne, France) has decided, after much prayer and discernment, to leave the abbey. Due to a lack of new vocations, the brothers felt that it was becoming difficult to maintain a sustainable monastic life at this site. On Sunday, 19 October 2025, the monks of the Abbey of Notre-Dame-du-Port-du-Salut handed over responsibility for their abbey to a team of volunteer

For several years, the Cistercian community of Bellefontaine (France) has been questioning its future. Initially, it sought to adapt its community premises to accommodate a smaller number of brothers, but over time it realised that the brothers could not continue to live alone on this 19th-century property covering 120 hectares, which had become too large for a small group of monks whose average age had reached 80. So it explored the possibility of partnering with association

The community of Oelenberg (Alsace, France) has been aware for some time of its situation of fragility. The monastic commissary, Dom...