About
Christ in the Desert
The Monastery of Christ
in the Desert is a contemplative Roman Catholic Benedictine
monastery located deep in the high desert wilderness of the Chama River
canyon in New Mexico. The monastic community of 24 brothers includes
members from 7 countries including the United States, England, Mexico,
the Philippines, and Vietnam. Under the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic
Church, Christ in the Desert is an Abbey of the English Province of the
Subiaco Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation, which has
monasteries in every continent of the world.
Christ in the Desert was founded in 1964 by Father Aelred Wall and two
other monks from Mount Saviour Monastery in New York. Father Aelred's
co-founders returned to Mount Saviour in the late 1960's. In 1973,
Aelred left the monastery himself and became a hermit in Mexico where he
died a decade later. The Benedictine foundation in New Mexico continued
to exist, but for many years remained a small, struggling community. In
1974, the present monastic community of 25 monks began arriving, seeking
the Benedictine life of prayer, reading, and manual labor.
The monks of Christ in the Desert have revived the ancient tradition of
monastic scriptoria by designing and publishing World Wide Web sites on
the Internet for corporations and foundations. Monks in antiquity used
illuminated manuscripts, created with ink and gold leaf, to communicate
their beliefs to the masses. At Christ in the Desert, this same
tradition has found a niche in modernity.
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