St. Boniface’s Monastery Provides an Oasis of Serenity in Bustling Munich

When clanging streetcars, blaring horns, hissing trains and other noises of the city get to be too much for Munichers, there’s always St. Boniface’s.

The Roman Catholic monastery, an island of tranquility in downtown Munich, rents out prayer cells for those in dire need of peace and quiet.

“Recently a Protestant minister came on what we call our quiet day, which is usually one Saturday a month,” said Abbot Odilo Lechner, who heads the Benedictine monastery. “He said he had a very important sermon to prepare and needed to do it in a quiet place, away from his family, so he came to us.”

St. Boniface, which is operated by 12 Benedictine monks, is less than a quarter of a mile from the sprawling train station in the center of bustling Munich.

It is one of about 20 monasteries in West Germany where lay people as well as clerics can go to meditate and rethink their lives. Most, however, are in much smaller and more tranquil settings than Munich, with its 1.3 million people.

The St. Boniface cells are rented for minimal rates by the day or week. Young people pay $6.66 a day for the cell, room and board. Adults are expected to make a voluntary donation for a cell and meals.

“The price, that’s not important. It is more or less voluntary,” Lechner said in a recent interview.

The people who come to St. Boniface, he said, are from all walks of life, including teachers, scientists, businessmen and students.

Some stay for only a day, others for as long as two weeks.

Lechner, a quiet-spoken man in his 50s, said that sometimes groups of eight to 10 people come to the monastery to meditate and pray.

“Here they live like one lives in a monastery,” Lechner said. “They get up at 5:10 a.m., pray together, breakfast together, attend Mass, then meditate or just chat.

“Before noon they help do housekeeping chores, work in the garden and such. Then they pray together again, eat lunch, then a little free time to take a walk.”

Food served at the monastery is typically German: eggs, cheese, ham, bread, butter and jam for breakfast; a pork steak, cold cuts or sausages, with vegetables and salad for lunch and dinner. There also is a choice of water, soft drinks or even a glass of beer.