[Opinion] Sale of idyllic mountain monastery near Aspen is one more lost spiritual space (Opinion)

Sale of idyllic mountain monastery near Aspen is one more lost spiritual space (Opinion)

For nearly 70 years, people from around the world visited St. Benedict’s Monastery in Old Snowmass, a place many called “a sanctuary,” “a sacred valley” and “much more than just a church.” Located in the Capitol Creek valley halfway between Aspen and Basalt, the Catholic Church’s monastery and ranch served as a home for Trappist monks who separated themselves from the world to worship, pray, meditate and contemplate in an idyllic setting in the …

‘Bless this house’: Community at St. Benedict’s Monastery bids farewell

“Bless this house, which has given so much to so many.” — Program Book from St. Benedict’s Monastery’s last Mass, Jan. 11, 2026 Before first light hit the eastern flank of Mount Sopris — before the sun could warm the mesas and forests that slope toward Capitol Creek, or bake the sprawling ranches and fields on the valley floor — the Trappist brothers of St. Benedict’s Monastery would rise from their beds, and they would pray.  They listened to s…