About

Stilfontein Priory is the physical home of the Monastery of Our Lady of Good Hope, and was founded in 2016 in South Africa by the Very Reverend Damien Truslow-Trudeau, O.S.B., who serves as her prior. In May 2022, the community voted to sell the South African property and to relocate the Priory to the United States and Fr. Trudeau, OSB, an American arrived shortly thereafter to pave the way for relocation.

Members of the Priory, both Clerical and Lay-brothers, share life in community, centered on a common apostolate of missionary activity and corporate prayer.

Members of the Priory live following the spirit of the Rule of Saint Benedict, and their lives of prayer and work, ora et labora, conform to over 1500 years of well-proven monastic ideals.

As such, the main apostolate is communal prayer. Members pray together 7 times a day, including Matins, Lauds, Prime, Eucharist, Diurnum (combines Terce, Sext, and None), Vespers, and Compline. We pray the traditional Benedictine Psalter as outlined by Saint Benedict in his rule, which proscribes all 150 psalms per week, and also includes Canticles, short readings, suffrages, and a final commemoration to the Virgin Mary.

Time is also devoted to private and personal prayer, Eucharistic Adoration, and the ancient art of Lectio Divina.

For those Benedictines not involved in initial formation, monks serve in apostolic ministry at one of our parishes, pre-school and aftercare, and in hospital and prison ministry.

The monks are also planning to open a repository to offer Religious Goods, Vestments and Priory Jams.

STILFONTEIN PRIORY | 11264 KING’S HWY | MONTROSS | VIRGINIA | 22520 | (804) 465-1986