N-D. de la consolation
Abbey & Brewery
150 kilometers west of Beijing, in the mountains separating China from Mongolia, lies the Yang Kia Pinn Monastery.
It was there, in the middle of this mountainous chaos, that the Trappists decided to establish a monastery. Monsignor Delaplace, around 1880, had met in Rome a person who was preparing to take the veil at the Carmel of Uccle near Brussels and who had offered him a large amount of money to found a monastery of his choice.
Proposals were then made to various superiors of French Trappist monasteries, and the prior of La Trappe de Tamié accepted them with the intention of transporting his small community, which had been expelled from its convent, to China. He first came alone to Yang Kia Pinn in 1883 and was joined a few months later by two monks from the Abbey of Grâce-Dieu (Grace of God). This house grew and was elevated to the rank of abbey in 1892, under the authority of the abbot of Sept-Fons.
In 1940, conditions in the novitiate worsened ; communication became increasingly difficult, the threat of conscription into the Red Army hung over the young men, and the atmosphere of insecurity grew heavier as it continued. The difficult decision was made to evacuate the abbey to N.D- de Liesse near Cheng-Ting-Fu, in Hopeh.
In July 1947, troops of the People's Liberation Army, under the command of Communist military leaders, attacked and looted the monastery. The abbey was burned and devastated. The monks were subjected to interrogation, torture, and mock public trials, accused of "oppressing the Chinese people." The survivors were then forced to undertake a long "death march" of nearly 160 kilometers, chained and mistreated in appalling conditions (cold, starvation, beatings). During this persecution, 33 Trappist monks from Our Lady of Consolation perished, either by summary execution, torture, extreme deprivation, or exhaustion and anguish.
Information attesting to the existence of a brewery within this abbey is very scanty, but we can learn from the book "Les missions catholiques" - N°2132 , April 15, 1910, that during a visit made at this time: “You have there the complete body of trades : the shoemaker's store, the store for apricot kernels which are the wealth of La Trappe, a Lilliputian (tiny) brewery, the wine press, the wheat and millet granaries, the laundry, the covered well, the fruit orchard, and finally the “grand parlor”, i.e. the room where every evening, the cellarer tells everyone their work for the following day" ; the newspaper "La voix du peuple" (The Voice of the People) of May 21, 1913 also mentions this: “In order to organize their civilized life, they were forced to create all their own services: shoemaking, beer brewing, laundry, milling, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, masonry, weaving, basketry, etc.”