The Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz in Austria is the oldest in the world, almost 1000 years old and with more than 100 monks. It has never had “interruptions” in its history and is now an oasis of the Catholic Church in Europe, with love for God and others as the center of its work and with the beloved Benedict XVI as an “ally.”
Heiligenkreuz is located about 30 kilometers from Vienna, the capital of Austria. Its monks, explains the Italian newspaper Futurehave an average age of 49 years, which means that they are “young” in the ecclesial environment, especially in Europe where there are fewer and fewer vocations.
In addition, four or five men join the historic abbey each year, founded in 1135, almost a thousand years ago, making it the oldest Cistercian abbey in the world.