ABSTRACT
Social changes resonate also in enclosed communities. Vatican Council II’s suggested reforms for the Catholic world initiated a period of innovation and experimentation in monastic life accompanied by unexpected popularity, as is evidenced by various films and publications. The public success of Die grosse Stille and Des hommes et des dieux testifies that monasticism is still today, in our so-called secularised society, capable of arousing interest, and not just for religious reasons. This is further confirmed by the European boom in monastic tourism: one must book solitude in advance because, as the newspapers of various countries report, the number of tourists who wish to spend a holiday in a monastery, or to make a pilgrimage, is increasing exponentially year after year. Add to this the growing number of requests for cooking and gardening courses, guided tours in abbeys, the appeal of monastic products of various sorts, especially fresh produce and handmade goods and media interest in the subject. Paradoxically, while monastic vocations are in free fall, monastic life is increasingly attractive to society (Jonveaux, Pace and Palmisano 2014).
