BANJA LUKA ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE BANJA LUKA, May 4 (Hina) - The Mary the Star monastery, founded in 1869 near Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina, once famous for its Trappist cheese, is on the verge of collapse, father Philipe Anneste,
the prior of the only remaining Cistercian monastery in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, told Hina.
BANJA LUKA, May 4 (Hina) - The Mary the Star monastery, founded in
1869 near Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina, once famous for its
Trappist cheese, is on the verge of collapse, father Philipe
Anneste, the prior of the only remaining Cistercian monastery in
the territory of the former Yugoslavia, told Hina. #L#
Once a large farming and cattle-breeding estate, which included
plants for the production of cheese and wine, a power plant and
crafts shops, the monastery today owns almost no property. The
number of its parishioners has dropped to a hundred, mostly elderly
people, due to emigration during the war. Of some twenty monks in
the late 1980s, only three remain in the monastery.
Father Philipe says that all appeals to the country's authorities
to help the monastery repossess at least some of its land
confiscated during the war have been in vain. The monastery's head
says that if helped, the monastery could restart the production of
its original ale.
Situated on the outskirts of Banja Luka, the monastery was once a
source of income for several thousand parishioners and citizens of
Banja Luka. Today it survives on scarce charity and help in kind
from neighbouring parishes, Anneste said.
(hina) rml