Abbey of New Clairvaux

Mothers day weekend we went on a outing with JS's family.

Grandma and grandpa Starr, his sister, sons Shane and Zach

and JS and me. Grandpa wanted to take the old cars, so

our little caravan headed north to Vina in Tehama county.

Our destination was the Abbey of New Clairvaux. The ranch

originally a Mexican land grant awarded to Peter Lassen.

Lassen come across the ground when he and General Bidwell

were tracking horse thieves from Sacramento north in 1843.

After his death the ranch changed threw many hands and

in 1881 Senator Leland Stanford acquired the property.

The ranch under Stanford saw race horses, beef cattle, sheep,

a herd of registered Holstein-Friesian dairy cows and almost

every commercial variety of the fruit and nut trees. The ranch

was 55,000 acres and irrigated by 100 miles of ditches.

The vineyards covered 4,000 acres making it the largest

winery in the world. Not suited to this part of California,

the vines provided poor wine and brandy became the

principal product. At Stanford's death the ranch was

signed to Stanford University, were the trustees sold it off

piece by piece. The Monks bought 200 acres of the

main homestead of the ranch in 1955.

The main attraction today is the Abbey of the Sacred Stones.

Father John one of the Cistercians of Strict Observance

monks, was our personal tour guide on an adventure that

covered almost 800 years. From the Cistercian monastery of

Santa Maria de Ovila, in Trillo, Guadalajare, Spain where

it's construction started in 1190 to Vina California 2011.

The stones were the chapter house of the monastery.

In 1931 William Randolph Hearst bought and had the

chapter house dismantled and shipped threw the Panama

canal to San Fransisco. He then traded them to the

city for taxes he owed. They stayed in San Fransisco

in crates till 1994 when they were given to the abbey.

By this time only 40% of the stones were left.

An outer shell in the Gothic style has been built to protect

the original structure. The Sacred Stones are now being

erected and should be finished this year. Look at the photos,

the dark stones are the original and light stones had to be

carved by hand on sight. We were all Awe Struck.

"It is Beautiful"

For the full story and more photos go to

www.sacredstones. org.

"They make good wine now"