Worldly roar is missing at monks' casket works

Munson: Worldly roar is missing at monks' casket works

KYLE MUNSON'S IOWA • kmunson@dmreg.com • January 14, 2011 

Peosta, Ia. — The roar has been deafening - all this talk about civility or the lack thereof in our national discourse. Whether words directly incite real violence. Whether this or that politician began a particular spat.

President Barack Obama tried to unify the nation with words Wednesday night at the memorial in Tucson, Ariz., when he asked America to live up to the expectations of slain 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green.

Des Moines, meanwhile, has been full of ritual speechifying at the start of Iowa's new legislative session and gubernatorial administration.

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A bit overwhelmed, I guess I wanted to make the pilgrimage to a meditative spot firmly grounded in silence, with fewer words per capita.

The 3,800 acres and 35 monks of the New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque turned out to be the perfect choice Thursday - the day that one of the Trappist Caskets handcrafted here by monks was the center of attention in Christina's funeral in Tucson. After being contacted Tuesday by her family, the monks donated the casket, as they often do for children.
It was a small spiritual thread connected to the national consciousness.

I began here with Sam Mulgrew, who sported a green Columbia vest and blue jeans rather than the robes of a monk. He's the general manager who sold his casket-making business to the abbey in 1999.

Mulgrew, 48, lives with his wife in Peosta, while their two daughters are enrolled at the University of Iowa. (Trivia tidbit: He's also the brother of actress Kate Mulgrew of "Star Trek: Voyager" fame.)
Mulgrew grew up in Dubuque, but he left for many years to live in New York City, Paris and other far-flung locales. He's a student of philosophy who credits time at an ashram in India and a hermitage in South America as pivotal in his life - so a Roman Catholic monastery as his workplace makes sense.

He began to learn to make caskets in 1996 using timber on his former farm in Jackson County.

"This place has significant psychological power," he said of the abbey. "People tell me they feel the peacefulness of the place."
Father Alberic Farbolin soon strolled into Mulgrew's office. He's responsible for some of the exacting fine-joining woodwork on the caskets - and loves the repetitive, prayerful nature of the work. Farbolin also blesses each casket, including the one shipped this week to Tucson.

National tragedies can remind you what a casket communicates to people, Farbolin said. Then he described a beautiful image from ancient Greek monastic tradition: The word of God "sits on top of your heart," he said, so that in the wake of death or a similar sorrow "your heart breaks open, and the word falls in."
So crafting caskets is a corporal act of mercy for these monks. It's prayer. It heeds St. Benedict's rule prominently displayed in the casket showroom: "Let nothing be preferred to the work of God."

Farbolin also delivered happy news to Mulgrew: Three new novice monks had just arrived at the abbey and would begin training at the casket factory.

Trappist Caskets has seen double-digit growth each year, Mulgrew said, and keeping up with demand has been difficult in recent months. The current pace is about 1,800 caskets per year. Models range from simple pine boxes for $1,000 to premium (although never ostentatious) designs that run upward of $3,000.
These monks had been farmers for 160 years before casket-making became their more lucrative cottage industry. The abbey discontinued farming last year and sold its implements and rented its cropland.

The resident abbot appoints 15 or so monks to work at Trappist Caskets, alongside another 15 hired employees. Everybody mingles on the 35,000-square-foot factory floor - except in a monks-only mezzanine where Farbolin and others can work in prayerful meditation.
During a stroll through the factory I met Brother Felix Leja, the first monk here to build coffins. He joined the monastery in 1950, back when some of the pine trees recently harvested were planted.

Al Dooley was the first non-monk to be hired. Before building these symbolic doorways to the afterlife, he made doors and cabinets for years as a millworker in Dubuque.

The only time his name gets in the newspaper, Dooley noted, is "when I win a fishing tournament."
Then here's the exception, Al.

Jens Sogaard is stationed at the end of the assembly line. He oversees shipping, procures hardware and operates the laser engraver. Thursday was his first day back at work after his job hit too close to home: His 23-year-old son, Christian, died Jan. 4 in a one-car accident nearby on U.S. Highway 20. So Sogaard became a customer in his own factory. "I wanted to have a part in his final bed," the father said.

Before leaving I stopped in the chapel for a 10-minute prayer service. Mulgrew calls this the "nicest room in the state of Iowa," with thick limestone walls that tower three stories high, topped by a peak of massive wood beams. The chapel and the rest of the main abbey building were constructed starting in 1868 using revenue from sales of pork and beef to the Union Army during the Civil War - a reminder that our nation survived a far bleaker era.
Thursday, the monks and a small group of retreat attendees intoned prayers and humbly asked God to help keep us vigilant in loving our neighbor.

Apt words for the week. America should live up to not only Christina Taylor Green's expectations, but also to Christian Sogaard's. And to each of the 1,800 or so souls each year whose caskets have their roots in this Iowa soil.

Kyle Munson can be reached at (515) 284-8124 or kmunson@dmreg.com. Connect with him on Facebook (Kyle Munson's Iowa), Twitter (@KyleMunson) and his blog (DesMoinesRegister.com/KyleMunson).