CLARK - Five years ago, Brother Michael Mary was clothed as a novice and enclosed in a newly formed monastery. Tomorrow night, he will become a priest and make perpetual vows of obedience, marking the fifth anniversary of the Carmel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Father Daniel Mary, prior of the monastery and the only other monk to be enclosed with Brother Michael at its start, said 13 men now live in a new 6,300-square-foot home that replaces the original building a quarter-mile away.

"We're just getting started," said Father Daniel, born Daniel Schneider and raised in Clark.

"I'm amazed that we grew as fast as we did. To go from two to 13 is remarkable for a monastery in today's world. It shows this is not the work of men, but the work of God," he said.

The monastery, which Father Daniel said is one of only three in the United States where men follow such a monastic way of life, received 150 inquiries last year from young men interested in joining.

"It's pretty remarkable to see young guys who want that in today's world. Most are swallowed up in desires of success and power and money. For young guys to leave all that and come to a monastery, that's the most awesome miracle," he said.

Most of those who have joined are between 19 and 22 years old, and come from a variety of backgrounds, said Father Daniel, who is 41, and whose salt-and-pepper beard gives him the distinct look of the elder disciple among the community of young men.

Men in their mid-30s or older typically don't adjust as well to the monastic life of praying, fasting, rigorous physical labor and strict subservience, he said.

"You're becoming more brittle in your ways if you've been in the world that long. For the Marines, it's hard to take an older guy and train him, and we're like the spiritual Marines," he said.

Not for everyone

And like the Marines, not everyone is cut out to be a monk. About five of those who sought to join the monastery over the past five years later decided to leave, Father Daniel said.

"Some of them had trouble leaving behind their family and the world, which is a radical step. For others, they had the vocation to serve our Lord, but they were in the wrong place, and ended up joining another order," he said.

For those who stay, their days are filled with prayer and work. Many brothers follow a centuries-old tradition of building with stones, creating walls and fences at the monastery.

Having outgrown their original home on adjacent land, the monks in August moved into a new monastery they built. It is designed like a large, single-family home, with an eye toward selling it in a year or two as they move up to larger accommodations.

Father Daniel has a vision of what he calls New Mount Carmel, a 30-person stone monastery in the mountains around northwest Wyoming, including a separate cloistered home for a group of Carmelite nuns, who will be supported by the monks.

The property will also have room for up to 30 visitors, so that "anybody that wants can come and learn about Christ and experience our spirituality," he said.

Father Daniel's dream is for the monks to purchase the historic Irma Lake Lodge, a luxurious, secluded, 500-acre ranch compound in the South Fork Valley near Cody.

But the property, once owned by Buffalo Bill Cody and sold to W.R. Coe in 1913, is listed for sale at $9.7 million, and the monks have yet to raise the funds or find a benefactor to help them realize that dream.

Father Daniel figures it will "take a miracle to get it done," but is praying and working with a dozen brothers to accomplish that miracle.

Monastic perks

The men are raising money by selling their own Mystic Monk brand of coffee, which they blend and roast at the monastery and market via the Internet and through mail-order catalogs to customers around the world.

"That's become the thing we see as the perfect industry for our monastic life. It's been very successful, and at this point, the coffee is selling itself," Father Daniel said.

Brother Michael, who grew up around Minneapolis and worked there for a coffee-roasting company, is the master roaster behind Mystic Monk. Up to five brothers work in the coffee business six days a week, selling 10,000 pounds per month.

Brother Elias, who confesses to drinking his fair share of coffee each day, said the monks began by selling to Catholics who wanted to support them. But they are branching out to secular buyers and wholesale markets like church and school groups who resell the coffee for fundraisers.

Despite working with e-commerce Web sites, international shipping computers and other elements of the modern world, the monks remain largely isolated, with no access to TV, newspapers or other news media.

"We probably get hundreds of prayer requests a week, because we are becoming nationally known," Father Daniel said, adding that he has lately been receiving many more prayer requests related to the faltering economy.

"In fact, out of everything big happening in the world, we usually hear about it by a prayer request," he said.

The monks have yet to construct a wall, or monastic enclosure, around their new monastery, and they are often busy with construction duties or coffee chores. But that is nothing new for monks, Father Daniel said.

"Monks have always done manual work to support their monasteries, and done construction and built huge buildings. But we keep a pretty intense life of prayer too, even when doing this work," he said.

"We realize this is a transition period right now that we all have to endure. But monasteries go through stages. You can't build Rome overnight," he said. "Things are done in stages, and you have to endure."

The Carmelite monks will hold a special Mass observing their five-year anniversary at 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Church of St. Anthony of Padua, 1333 Monument Drive, in Cody.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at rprevost@billingsgazette.com or 307-527-7250.