To­mor­row, Is­land Hik­ers’ fam­i­ly ad­ven­ture to Mt Tha­bor and Mount St Bene­dict be­gins at 8 am. Hik­ers are re­quest­ed to as­sem­ble at 7 am, at Massy Stores Car Park, EMR, St Au­gus­tine, and the hik­ing time to the top is 25 min­utes, with a down­hill re­turn of 20 min­utes.

This hike is per­fect for the en­tire fam­i­ly, and is suit­able for chil­dren aged sev­en and old­er. It is rat­ed 3 (Fair), with a short steep up­hill climb, with a down­hill re­turn.

The Abbey of Mount St Bene­dict, sit­u­at­ed in the Tu­na­puna Hills 600 feet above sea lev­el, is a sig­nif­i­cant tourist at­trac­tion that pro­vides spir­i­tu­al guid­ance to Chris­tians and non-Chris­tians. On the en­trance to the monastery, there is a large sign writ­ten in Latin “PAX” mean­ing “a place where peace reigns.” In Oc­to­ber 2012, The Abbey of Mount St Bene­dict cel­e­brat­ed its 100th an­niver­sary.

The his­to­ry of Mount Saint Bene­dict goes back to 1911 when Ab­bot Dom Mayeul de Caigny of Brazil wrote to the Arch­bish­op of Port-of-Spain John Pius to es­tab­lish a Bene­dic­tine foun­da­tion in Trinidad. The Arch­bish­op grant­ed per­mis­sion, and on Jan­u­ary 17, 1912, Dom Mayeul pur­chased a small es­tate lo­cat­ed in the hills of Tu­na­puna from An­drew Vic­to­ri­ano Gomez. Tu­na­puna, which means “the way of the wa­ter,” had no roads lead­ing up to the moun­tains and to get there the Ab­bot had to walk the steep hills on foot. He be­came im­pressed by its land­scape the splen­did views and serene am­bi­ence. The ask­ing price in those days was £4,000 and the first build­ing he erect­ed was a small Tapia hut. He cel­e­brat­ed the first mass on Au­gust 10, 1913.

Dur­ing the pe­ri­od, 1912-1918, ex­ten­sive work be­gan on the Mount, a church, guest-house, work­shop, liv­ing quar­ters and kitchen. By 1918, the dai­ly crowds in­creased to such an ex­tent that the monks need­ed to find a more se­clud­ed place for rec­ol­lec­tion and study.

Sit­u­at­ed at 1,851 feet above sea lev­el the monks looked at the near­by hill­tops of Mt Tha­bor as the ide­al lo­ca­tion to build the new monastery. Its pur­pose was to ac­com­mo­date young monks study­ing the­ol­o­gy and those seek­ing seclu­sion from the in­flux of dai­ly vis­i­tors. By 1922, the man­sion at Mt Tha­bor con­tained 15 rooms, a chapel, a large hall and two tow­ers 40 feet high. Re­served on each side of the tow­er were the Pa­pal Flag and the Union Jack, vis­i­ble from miles around.

The high­er monastery was a place of soli­tude and for the pub­lic to vis­it writ­ten per­mis­sion was re­quired. How­ev­er, the dif­fi­cul­ty of climb­ing the moun­tain and bring­ing dai­ly sup­plies caused the prop­er­ty to be aban­doned. To­day all that is left of this ma­jes­tic pi­ous struc­ture is some con­crete ru­ins. The wood­en Tapia Cas­tle now de­stroyed by the rugged el­e­ments of na­ture.

Mount St Bene­dict be­came an Abbey in Feb­ru­ary 1947 and, on June 3, 1947, Dom Adel­bert Van Duin, a monk sta­tioned there, be­came the first Ab­bot. His mot­to “to be at the ser­vice to all” and he re­ceived his ab­ba­tial bless­ing from Arch­bish­op Fin­bar Ryan on June 16, 1947.

Dur­ing the dry sea­son, the hill­tops, which sur­round Mt St Bene­dict, are some­times vul­ner­a­ble to bush fires and to pre­serve the land­scape the forestry di­vi­sion re­plant­ed pine trees. There is a look­out tow­er used to sur­vey the re­gion.

The up­hill walk to the Pines where Mt Tha­bor sit­u­at­ed will take 25 min­utes. The hill­top with the sooth­ing breeze blow­ing con­stant­ly across the val­ley is a per­fect lo­ca­tion for a pic­nic. Trekking the moun­tain, sur­round­ed by a back­drop of tow­er­ing pine for­est is a tru­ly re­mark­able and grat­i­fy­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. Vis­i­ble in the dis­tance are breath­tak­ing views of Mt El Tu­cuche, Mara­cas St Joseph Val­ley, the East-West Cor­ri­dor and the Cen­tral Plains. On the com­pound, there is a cafe­te­ria and a gift shop to as­sist in the up­keep of the church. Mt St Bene­dict al­so dis­trib­utes yo­ghurt and for many years once known for hav­ing the best hon­ey. To­mor­row, park­ing at the emp­ty lot lo­cat­ed on the op­po­site side of the foot­ball field head­ing up to the monk is avail­able.