Peru Monastery

Benedictine Monks in Peru

Monasterio de Santa María de la Santísima Trinidad

In 1981 three monks of Belmont began monastic life at Tambogrande in the north of Peru

at the invitation of the Archbishop of Piura. In 2018 the community moved to its new home, the monastery at Lurin, which was formerly home to a com munity of Cistercian nuns and a foundation of the famous Abbey of Las Huelgas in Spain. Read here about the Community and its history.

Monastic Life in Peru

In 1981 three monks of Belmont began monastic life at Tambogrande in the north of Peru at the invitation of the Archbishop of Piura. In August 2006 the community moved to Pachacamac in the Diocese of Lurin, less than an hour, 30 miles south of Lima. formerly home to a community of Cistercian nuns and a foundation of the famous Abbey of Las Huelgas in Spain.

The move to Lurin came at a necessary time for the community as it was expanding. The new monastery offers more space for this work, hospitality and apostolate.

The Cistercian nuns of Las Huelgas gifted the monastery to our brethren so that the monastic life can continue on the site after their withdrawal. The monastery that they built has a complete set of monastic buildings, including church, guesthouse and workshops. It also has a 10-acre orchard.

The monastery is much nearer the centre of things, being just a 10 minute walk from the cathedral, local seminary, market, bus stops and so on. The Community will, among other things, return to working with the poor, which was an important aspect of our life in Tambogrande and San Lorenzo.

This move has the wholehearted support of the local bishop, who hopes the Community will build on the fine work done at Pachacamac by becoming an important spiritual centre for Lima and Peru.

Latest News from Peru

Belmont Abbey Hereford

Corona Virus in Peru

By Dom Brendan Thomas • 27 Mar, 2020

The monks are fine at Lurin. Fr Alex, pictured above on their tractor, has written about the increasing difficulties in Peru. As of yesterday there were on 9 deaths in the country, but the problem is that they don’t have the kits to ascertain who has the virus and who doesn't. He wrote yesterday: We hear in the news that the situation in Europe is critical, especially in Spain and Italy. Here in Latin America it is also getting worse. Brazil has 2,000 people infected, after that Ecuador and Chile have the most infections. Peru has, if we can say, only nine deaths but more than four hundred with the virus. Tomorrow President Vizcarra will announce the extension of the quarentine at least after Easter. Here in the monastery we don’t have guests, no monastic shop, no lucuma selling since 13th March. The main sources of income have led our finances too low. Easter was always the time when we received more guests and therefore income. Everything else is OK. The cook Sra. Silvia remains at home and only Macario and Julian are coming and staying in the monastery without going back home until 31st. We need to keep on going with everything else now that the lucuma is in its harvest, we need to peel it and keep in the fridge. Outside nobody can walk without permission. There is a "toque de queda" [curfew] from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. everyday. We are allowed out to get only the essential food and medicine.

Life and Work at our Peru Monastery

By Belmont Webmaster • 14 Feb, 2020

Abbot Paul has just got back from a visit to our monastery in Peru at Lurin, south of Lima. He found our monks to be in good spirit. They are an incredibly active group, growing vegetables and now producing many things for sale: honey, yoghurt, fruit juice and smoothies, panettone and pineapple and fruit vinegar. See the pictures below, to see them at work and some of their products. Fr Alex will be over in the summer to lead some Icon workshops. Click on the images to see them in full.

Panettones in Peru

By Abbot Paul Stonham • 23 Dec, 2018

One of the great advantages of the new monastery in Lurin is the number of workshops, where the community can produce goods for sale as they seek to develop their economy and become self-supporting. At Pachacamac the brethren were already making bread and yogurt for sale and producing and painting candles, especially Paschal candles. There was always great demand for these products in the small monastery shop. Since moving to Lurin in April, this work has expanded quite dramatically. An example of this were the 10,000 panettones handmade in the monastery bakery in the run up to Christmas, New Year and Epiphany. A large number of these were ordered by local parish shops, whilst others are being sold at the monastery and in the local shopping mall. Our photographs show the brethren working in the bakery and Brs. Mario and Percy selling their panettones directly to the public at the entrance to the shopping mall. The brethren also make pandoros, brioches, cakes and a variety of breads for sale.

The Cistercian Presence in Peru

Monastic life in Peru in the Benedictine-Cistercian tradition has existed in Peru from 1584. In that year the first female Cistercian monastery outside of Europe was founded in Lima. For more than three centuries it thrived, and according to history, grew to around 300 nuns at one point. However by the 1960s the community had reduced in number to a few elderly nuns, and various means were tried to keep the community going, without success.

Then in 1992 this colonial Cistercian community was reborn when three nuns were sent from he famous Cistercian Abbey of Las Huelgas (left), in Burgos (founded in 1187) to establish a monastery. It bore the name of the colonial Cistercian monastery in Lima and inherited many of its works of art. They built a new monastery 30 miles south of Lima

Unfortunately, over the years there was a lack of local vocations and so the Cistercian Congregation of St Bernard, to which they belonged, decided to close the monastery and recall the few remaining nuns back to Spain.

Belmont's Presence in Peru

Belmont's presence in Peru dates from 1981. In that year the community established a small community of monks in the north of the country at the request of the then-Bishop,

Monseñor Fernando Vargas. Five years later in 1986 it opened its doors as a Dependant Priory under the name of the Monastery of the Incarnation in Sector 8.4 of the Colonización de San Lorenzo (Tambogrande), under the guidance of Dom Paul Stonham. It remained in the north of Peru for 20 years.

The need for better agricultural ground, and in order to be closer to centres of formation for its young monks, the decision was taken to move closer to Lima. The community accepted the invitation of the Bishop of Lurín, Monseñor José Ramón Gurruchaga to settle in the area. Beginning under his successor Monseñor Carlos García, they settled in 2006 in the beautiful valley of Pachacámac (right). They built a guesthouse and a small church, but with increasing numbers of guests and interested vocations they soon realised that they needed more accommodation. They thought was to build more accommodation, although this was expensive.

The Cistercian-Benedictine Presence lives on

At this point the generous offer came from Abbess Mercedes and Community of Las Huelgas to move from Pachacamac to their monastic buildings since they had to close its foundation. They were delighted that their monastic life and prayer could continue in Lurin through their Benedictine brothers. The Abbess of Las Huelgas said that she saw the will and hand of God in the monks taking over the house and continuing the benedictine-cistercian tradition there. The move to Lurin removed the need to raise money to build at Pachacamac, enabling the community to concentrate on its prayer, work and service.