Words from the Silent

On a tree-clad ridge near Cumberland, R. I. lies a cluster of austere grey Gothic buildings, laid up in stone during the past 35 years by white-robed members of the Order of Cistercian Monks of the Strict Observance. The 62 men of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Valley--among them a onetime Canadian Northwest "Mountie," a onetime department store manager, a onetime railway construction engineer, a onetime civil engineer, a World War aviator--labor daily in their fields and cowbarns. Save when all of them sing their psalms, recite their orisons, or when a few of them maintain necessary contacts with outsiders, these Cistercians speak no word, communicate their needs to one another in sign language. Like their famed but less ancient brother order, the Trappists, they are vowed to silence, poverty, chastity, obedience. Humbly, courteously they welcome and wait upon visitors, accepting alms from the world-weary well-to-do, or nothing from needy wayfarers.

Six winters ago a needy wayfarer sought and received refuge at the Cistercian Monastery. He was William Devro, a steam-shovel operator from Providence. Devro did odd jobs for the monks, proved useful when it became necessary to enlarge the monastery's reservoir. At a small weekly stipend Devro was put in the cab of a steam crane, under the guidance of the community's civil engineer, Brother Hugh. One day a cable on the crane tore loose, struck Devro in the eye. The monks treated him in their infirmary, then sent him to a Providence hospital. He lost the sight of his eye, returned to the monastery to do lighter tasks, soon resumed an old habit, heavy drinking. One day, after Devro had been on an exceptionally wild carouse, the Cistercians refused him readmittance. He ended up, insane, in a State hospital, but that was not the last the monks heard of William Devro. His wife demanded compensation from the monastery, brought suit for $15,000.

Last week this suit, first of its kind the Cistercians had ever experienced, came to trial in Superior Court in Providence. To present the monastery's case there had to be witnesses, and witnesses must talk. The Prior of the Cistercians dispensed Brother Hugh and Father Aelred (Frank J. Walsh, late of the Royal Flying Corps) from their vows of silence. Their unaccustomed words were not notable. Father Aelred described the nature of the monastery, Brother Hugh described Devro's accident. But most damaging to the plaintiff's case were Mrs. Devro's admissions as to her husband's behavior, drawn from her by the Cistercians' potent counsel, U. S. Collector of Internal Revenue Joseph V. Broderick. Before long Justice Herbert L. Carpenter called attorneys for both sides before him, suggested that plaintiff's case was not impressing him. By general agreement he discontinued the suit, charging costs to the plaintiff. Back to the silence of their ridge in Cumberland went Brother Hugh and Father Aelred.

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