Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Trappist monastery in Conyers, Georgia, US

The Monastery of the Holy Spirit is a Trappist abbey near Conyers, Georgia, with a concrete church and cloister built by the monks between 1944 and 1959. The grounds cover about 2,300 acres and include a retreat house, a visitor center in the original barn, and workshops for stained glass and bonsai.

Twenty monks from Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky founded the monastery on March 21, 1944, on former Honey Creek cotton land given by the Archdiocese of Atlanta and silent film star Colleen Moore. They lived in a barn, then a pine-board monastery, while building the concrete abbey, completed in 1959 and consecrated on December 8, 1968. It was the first Cistercian monastery in the US founded by an American, not European, monastery.

The monks here follow a strict daily schedule of early prayers and manual work that shapes life within the monastery walls. This simple, ritualized routine flows through the entire place and sets the rhythm of each day.

Visitors can explore the museum, browse the gift shop, and walk through the bonsai garden at their own pace. It is helpful to plan your visit in advance, as the location is somewhat remote and deserves a leisurely exploration.

The monastery's stained glass workshop grew into a business whose windows went to churches and buildings around the country; the 2005 fire destroyed the pine board building that housed it. The monks also make fruitcakes and fudge, and run a green cemetery on the grounds.