The recent announcement of the possible, if not likely, closure of the Abbey of La Trappe in Normandy in 2028 has sent shock waves around the monastic world and far beyond. For this is not just any monastery: it is the mother house of the Trappist Order – the very place from which the 17th-century reform of Cistercian observance spread, giving rise to the Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or ‘Trappists’. How is this possible? How can the abbey known for so long as ‘La Grande Trappe’, boasting of its utter fidelity to the Rule of St Benedict, simply close – at least in respect of being a Trappist community, whatever other purposes may be found for the historic buildings?