The monastery, sitting on about 1,400 hectares of forest and farmland, is home to the self-sustaining monks. Making the caskets and urns allows the Trappists to support their monastic way of life.

The New Melleray Abbey was founded in 1849 by monks from Mt. Melleray Abbey in County Waterford, Ireland, who were fleeing their homeland and its great famine.
With their “focus on contemplative life, not active ministry,” the monks are proud that they earn their living by the work of their own hands, said Br. Joseph Kronebusch. He said that different settlements of Trappists around the world make different items to support themselves.
“In France, they make very famous beer or cheese. In the United States, fruit cakes or candies or things like that that they can sell.”
Kronebusch explains that the Iowa Trappists used to support themselves through farming, but “that became a little less profitable at times, so we were looking for other industries.” They had a carpentry shop where they made furniture, Kronebusch said, but the monks realized they could be more competitive making caskets instead of furniture. That led to the launch of Trappist Caskets in 1999.
“We have a niche in that people are interested because they’re high quality, handmade, solid wood,” said Kronebusch, who believes clients are comforted that they know the caskets go to support the monastery.
“We’re not trying to be a big company or compete with big companies, but just to make enough to make a living for ourselves,” he said.
Canadian customers of Trappist Caskets love the idea of being connected to the Trappists, said Joe Bissonnette, who works for Last Things Ltd., the Canadian distributor of the funeral caskets and urns.
The company has been handling distribution of the caskets in Canada for the past year, and has sold about a dozen caskets and 20 urns, mostly in Ontario. Bissonnette is aiming to sell between 50 and 100 of the Trappists’ products annually in coming years.
From lower cost pine to more attractive walnut or oak, said Kronebusch, each casket or urn is blessed by one of the priests, unless a client requests otherwise.
The names of the people who have been buried in a Trappist casket or urn is recorded in a book in the casket building chapel and the names are prayed for at Mass once a month. A personal condolence letter is also shipped with the casket.
“We create this as a cradle or treasure chest for their body, which will some day be resurrected,” he said.
“It’s blessed because it’s holding this precious thing which is our bodies.”
Kronebusch, who buried his own father in one of the Trappist Caskets, sees the caskets as “a way of honouring this person’s life, this mother, this father, this child, with this beautiful casket around them, as the family gathers in this critical time in their lives.”
Every afternoon, his main job is selecting and matching wood pieces that are used in the premium caskets.
“There’s a lot of variation in grain and colour in the woods, especially in the walnut.” So he lays out all the matching pieces and colours. “They’re all numbered, so they can be assembled in the way that I lay them out.”
Kronebusch, a former cell biologist, joined the monastery in 2005 and took his final vows in 2011. He enjoys the rural setting and finds it “a peaceful environment to dedicate one’s life to prayer and to God,” he said.
“The Trappists don’t have outside ministries. They don’t run schools or supply priests to parishes,” he said, but they do offer guesthouses for individuals on retreat.
Trappists are monks of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, meaning their vocation is expressed through a life of silent prayer, community liturgy and manual labour. They are completely devoted to contemplative life and community prayer.
“We do the full Benedictine office seven times a day, starting with 3:30 a.m. vigils. So our day is punctuated with liturgical community prayer,” said Kronebusch.
The monks try to pray continually throughout the day.
“Manual labour frees your mind somewhat to keep focussed on God and prayer as you work,” he said.
The caskets range in price from about $1,500 to $3,400. For information, see www.trappistscasketscanada.ca.