Trappists, a religious order, celebrated for its extraordinary austerities, is so called from an abbey of the Cistercian order, founded in the middle of the 12th century, in the narrow valley of La Trappe, near Mortagne, in the Norman department of Orne—called ‘the trap’ because of its inaccessibility. The discipline of this monastery, in common with many others of the more wealthy monastic bodies, especially of those which were held in commendam, had become very much relaxed. In the first half of the 17th century the abbey of La Trappe fell, with other ecclesiastical preferments, to Dominique Armand-Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé (1626–1700), originally an accomplished but worldly courtier, who suddenly underwent a great change and turned his back on the vanities of the world. He undertook a reform of his monastery, and in the end established what was equivalent to a new religious order. It was in 1662 that he commenced his reforms. At first he encountered violent opposition from the brethren; but his firmness overcame it all. He himself entered upon a fresh novitiate in 1663, made anew the solemn profession, and was reinstalled as abbot. From this time may be dated the introduction of the new austerities which characterised the order. The monks were forbidden the use of meat, fish, wine, and eggs. All intercourse with externs was cut off, and the old monastic habit of manual labour was revived. The reform of De Rancé is founded on the principle of perpetual prayer and entire self-abnegation. By the Trappist rule the monks are obliged to rise at two o'clock A.M. for matins in the church, which last till half-past three; and after an interval occupied in private devotion they go at half-past five to the office of prime, which is followed by a lecture. At seven they engage in their several daily tasks, indoors or out, according to the weather. At half-past nine they return to the choir for the successive offices of terce, sext, and none; at the close of which they dine on vegetables dressed without butter or oil, or on vegetable soup, and a little fruit. Milk and cheese are used save in time of fast; the sick are allowed eggs. The dietary is not the same in all the houses of the order. In some light beer or wine is sparingly allowed. The principal meal is succeeded by manual labour for two hours, after which each monk occupies an hour in private prayer or reading in his own cell until four o'clock, when they again assemble in the choir for vespers. The supper consists of bread and water, and after a short interval of repose is followed by a lecture. At six o'clock they recite compline in choir, and at the end spend half an hour in meditation, retiring to rest at eight o'clock. The bed is a hard straw mattress, with a coarse coverlet; and the Trappist never lays aside his habit, even in case of sickness, unless it should prove extreme. Perpetual silence is prescribed, save in cases of necessity, and at certain stated times; only the abbot and the guest-master are allowed to speak to strangers. But conversation by means of manual and other signs is practised. The minor practices and observances are devised so as to remind the monk at every turn of the shortness of life and the rigour of judgment; and the last scene of life is made signal in its austerity by the dying man being laid during his death-agony upon a few handfuls of straw, that he may, as it were, lay aside upon the very brink of the grave even the last fragment of earthly comfort to which the necessities of nature had till then compelled him to cling.
The reformed order of La Trappe scarcely extended beyond France in the first period of its institution. The inmates of La Trappe shared, at the Revolution, the common fate of all the religious houses of France: they were compelled to quit their monastery; but a considerable number of them found a shelter at Valsainte, in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. In the vicissitudes of the revolutionary war they were driven from this house; and a community numbering about 250, together with a large number of nuns who had been established for purposes of education, found refuge at Constance, at Augsburg, at Munich, and even in Russia. Later in the course of the war small communities obtained a certain footing in Italy, Spain, America, England, and, notwithstanding the prohibitory law, even in France, at Mont Genève. After the Restoration they resumed, by purchase (1817), possession of their old home at La Trappe, which continued to be the head monastery of the order. During the course of the next fifty years they formed many establishments in France, the house of La Meilleraye being one of the most famous abbeys. When in 1880 1450 brethren of the order were expelled from France only a comparatively small number were left. In England the Cistercian house of St Bernard in Leicestershire is Trappist; so is the convent at Stapehill in Dorset. In Ireland the order has houses at Mount Melleray, near Cappoquin, in Waterford, and at Roscrea in Tipperary. America has houses at Gethsemane in Kentucky, at New Melleray, near Dubuque, Iowa, at Tracadie in Nova Scotia, and at Oka, on the Ottawa River, 36 miles from Montreal; there are houses in Germany, Algiers, Italy, and Belgium; there is even one (of German brethren) in Turkey.
See works quoted at MONACHISM; Gaillardin's Trappistes; ou l'Ordre de Cîteaux au 19 Siècle (1844); Pfannenschmidt, Geschichte der Trappisten (1873); Good Words for 1884; for the Gethsemane house, the Century, August 1888; and Comte de Charency, Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Notre Dame de La Trappe (1891).