Dom Augustine de Lestrange

Dom Augustine de Lestrange was a French abbot who led a group of Trappist monks after they were expelled from the Abbey of La Trappe in France in 1792. He guided them to establish a new settlement in Val-Sainte, Switzerland, where they adopted an even more austere way of life. Under his leadership, the community made several new foundations before facing expulsion from Switzerland in 1798. After years of wandering, they returned to La Trappe in 1814, becoming the first religious order to revive after the French Revolution. By the time of Lestrange's death in 1827, the order had grown to 700 members. The Trappists are a reformed branch of the Roman Catholic Cistercians, known for their extreme austerity, penitential exercises, and silence.12