Our Lady of Spring Bank Abbey

The Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, founded in 1928, was an American monastery of monks of the Cistercian Common Observance in Wisconsin.

In looking for a place to build their monastery, the monks received an invitation from Sebastian Gebhard Messmer, the Swiss-born Archbishop of Milwaukee, to establish themselves there.

At first the community operated under the direct oversight of the Abbot General himself, but responsibility for this was soon transferred to Hauterive Abbey in Switzerland.

[5] Under the leadership of an administrative prior, Bernard McCoy, the abbey launched a discount printing and toner operation, known as LaserMonks.

[6] Profits from this endeavor reached into the millions of dollars and McCoy became widely known in the business world and the media.