Monastery of Our Lady of Jordan

[1] In 1904, Cistercian monks were forced to abandon the Fontgombault Abbey in Indre, France, after a 1901 secularist-driven French law had given the government control over non-profit associations and threatened the existence of monasteries.

[1] In late summer and fall of 1904, under the direction of their abbot, Fortunat Marchand, six Trappist monks from Fontgombault arrived in Oregon and bought about 400 acres (1.6 km2) of land near Jordan on which to build a monastery.

[3] Thomas Meienhofer, Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Mount Angel, preached the dedicatory sermon, in which he explained the nature and the object of the life of the Cistercians, or Trappists.

[2] Upon hearing initial rumors of closure by Trappist superiors in Kentucky, a monk named George started a campaign to keep the monastery going.

[1] When the Trappists' abbot contracted tuberculosis, the Providence Sisters in Portland took him into their hospital and cared for him for a year free of charge.