A monk reads to the community of St. Benedict’s Monastery in Old Snowmass during a meal in 1966. The number of monks has fluctuated over nearly seven decades there; about half a dozen still work and pray on the sprawling property in 2025, but their future is uncertain as the monastery prepares to close.
St. Benedict’s Monastery in Old Snowmass has been called a “sacred place in the sacred valley,” a “monastic Camelot,” and a “cathedral of nature” imbued with spiritual and environmental care.
More than 3,700 acres encompass irrigated ranchland, a historic chapel and cloisters, a contemporary retreat center and an abundance of open space — shrubby hillsides, dense forests and sprawling fields, stewarded for nearly 70 years by monks with a deep respect for the natural world.
Some onlookers assumed the property was as good as conserved because the monks tread so lightly on the land and because they had designed the monastery facilities to last hundreds of years. But “as good as conserved” isn’t the same as a binding conservation easement, which protects scenic and ecological values in perpetuity through restrictions on land use and development.
The property hit the market for $150 million last April, after decisions by monastic superiors to close the monastery entirely due to an aging and dwindling population of monks. The choice to implement a conservation easement will be left up to the eventual buyer.
“We’ve just all taken it for granted for many decades that those guys would always be up there and they’d always protect the land, and that’s just the way things were,” said Michael Kinsley, a longtime Old Snowmass resident and current member of the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails Board of Trustees. He has also served on the board of the Snowmass Capitol Creek Caucus on and off over the course of about 20 years.
The artist and former Pitkin County commissioner initially spoke to Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio last June, about two months after the monastery listing was announced.
“That really freaked out a lot of people in this in this valley, [not only] in the Capitol [Creek] Valley, but the whole Roaring Fork Valley, because of the deep love that people had for what was there — that is, the monastery, the monks, … and just the gorgeous biological features of the place,” Kinsley said. “So, it was a shocker.”
The closure process began in 2022, initiated by a vote by the General Chapter of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The General Chapter is the “supreme authority” of about 150 Trappist monasteries and nunneries worldwide; an elected abbot general also oversees the entire order.
The Snowmass retreat center and bookstore shuttered in 2023, signaling that the entire monastery would close eventually, and the listing followed in 2024.
On March 13, the property went under contract to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed amount; the sale has a proposed closing date of June 9, co-listing agent Michael Latousek confirmed. About a half-dozen monks still live at St. Benedict’s and continue to offer daily liturgical services.
In a phone call April 8, Kinsley asserted that Open Space and Trails does not know the identity of the prospective buyer. Dale Will, the department’s acquisition and special projects director, wrote April 4 that he was “not privy to the potential buyer’s identity.”
David Chase, a founding member of the nonprofit Friends of the Monastery and longtime board member for the Snowmass Capitol Creek Caucus, said that he did not know and would not speculate on the potential buyer’s identity. And whoever does know might as well be “sworn to secrecy,” he said April 8. (Chase also applied for Kinsley’s seat on the Open Space and Trails Board, indicating a special interest in conservation efforts throughout Pitkin County, “especially the Capitol Creek Valley and the monastery;” the Board of County Commissioners ultimately reappointed Kinsley this month.)
Past conservation attempts
Whoever the buyer is could have a profound impact on the legacy of St. Benedict’s Monastery, a property that has been steeped in contemplative spirituality and environmental stewardship since Trappist monks first arrived from another monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1956.
Past attempts to implement a conservation easement on the monastery land never came to fruition, despite efforts from local monks, nonprofits, Pitkin County officials and neighboring landowners. Pitkin County made a proposal valued at more than $27 million for a conservation easement on about 2,700 acres in 2022.
The Friends of the Monastery shared their own “offer to help” in 2023, focused on conserving large swaths of the land and maintaining spiritual traditions while still leaving some parcels for residential homes in an effort to maximize revenue for the monks.
Superiors in the Cistercian Order chose to leave the conservation decision up to the property’s next owner, according to Abbot Vincent Rogers of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer. The Massachusetts monastery is considered the “mother house” of St. Benedict’s; Rogers, as abbot, is the “father immediate.”
Although a dense suburb or shopping center would be impossible under Pitkin County’s current land-use restrictions, it is possible that the land could have a different use under a new owner. Residential homes and subdivision of the land are possible outcomes, although both would be restrained in size and number. The land lacks development rights for almost any new structure, and the process of acquiring those rights through the county’s growth management quota system can be competitive, costly and time-consuming.
Owners can skip the quota process for a single-family home on parcels of 500 acres or more if they agree to a conservation easement on most of their property, but those plans are still subject to county review and caps on maximum floor area.
The buyer’s intentions, like their identity and their offer, have not been disclosed; those who do know are keeping information close to the vest.
And yet, Kinsley is hopeful — “very hopeful,” he emphasized April 8. In Kinsley’s view, the future of the monastery is one of the top three issues facing the Open Space and Trails trustees. He expressed as much in his board renewal application in February and maintained that position last week, even with the buyer’s identity unknown.
The Open Space and Trails team has received “some indication” that the potential buyer is “conservation oriented,” according to Kinsley, but he would not say how they received that indication.
“I’m not wedded to who establishes any formal conservation status, … only that it happens,” he said.
The county doesn’t have the financial means to acquire the property outright, but it could be a willing partner with an owner looking to protect the land.
‘Due diligence’ underway
The monastery sale is not a “done deal” yet, said Latousek, a broker associate with the Aspen office of Douglas Elliman.
Latousek is working on the St. Benedict’s listing with Ken and Haley Mirr of the Denver-based Mirr Ranch Group. Ken Mirr has a long track record of selling legacy ranches and properties with conservation values, and he has maintained from the start that he wants to find a “conservation-minded buyer” for St. Benedict’s.
Another interested party was looking into the monastery throughout the fall but then pulled back, Latousek confirmed. The minutes from a Snowmass Capitol Creek Caucus meeting in December indicated that person’s vision for the property was supported by the conservation-oriented Friends of the Monastery, according to an update Chase shared with the caucus board.
Latousek confirmed the current buyer is doing their “due diligence,” a standard process for any real estate transaction. They’re essentially “kicking the tires” and “getting to know everything they possibly can about the property,” Latousek said.
The buyer will also be subject to scrutiny in this transaction — not only for their financial wherewithal but for their reputation and characteristics, according to guidelines established by higher authorities in the Catholic Church.
The sale of high-dollar property is considered an “act of extraordinary administration” that requires approval from the Holy See — aka the Vatican — if the price exceeds $7.5 million in a diocese of more than 500,000 people. St. Benedict’s Monastery is within this category as an institution in the Archdiocese of Denver. The archdiocese did not respond to requests for comment last week.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life does not comment on individual cases and refers questions to “local authorities,” as reaffirmed by a representative from the Vatican’s press office this week.
However, the dicastery does provide guidance for the review process, subject to adaptation on a case-by-case basis. They may consider factors such as the buyer’s “reputation” and whether their characteristics align with “the values of the respective institutes.” Proposals may be rejected if they “put in jeopardy the common good of the church.”
Rogers wrote in an email last year that the abbot general of the Trappist order will seek permission for the sale from the appropriate dicastery after “a firm offer is made for the property.” In an email March 18, Rogers declined to comment on the status of that review process among other questions about the future of the monastery.
The Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance did not respond to emailed requests for comment this spring directed toward a secretary in Rome and the procurator general, who conducts business of the order under the authority of the abbot general.
Latousek said April 8 while the monastic hierarchy is involved in the sale, “at this point there’s really nothing to comment on.”
Rogers wrote that he could only confirm that the sale was pending and, as Latousek noted, that “the buyer has begun his due diligence.”
That leaves most locals in information limbo, though Pitkin County officials have stayed in touch both with the Friends of the Monastery group that proposed their own conservation solution and with the real estate agents representing the sellers.
Property interests in the Capitol Creek Valley have come up in executive sessions at nearly every Open Space and Trails Board meeting throughout the fall and winter.
Although those closed meeting agendas don’t specify which properties were up for discussion, the minutes do report who was present. On March 4, in a joint meeting between the Open Space and Trails Board of Trustees and the Board of County Commissioners, the draft minutes listed two additional attendees for the Capitol Creek discussion: Chase and Mirr.
For now, Chase said the Friends of the Monastery are “on standby” and “biding our time.” Jeffrey Woodruff, an Old Snowmass resident and Pitkin County commissioner, said many interested parties are “all on the same page in terms of watching and waiting;” Kinsley agreed with the wait-and-see assessment.
Chase said he wants to “maintain a sharp focus on what the Friends of the Monastery were doing all along” — advocating for conservation “to the greatest extent possible” — and noted that the Snowmass Capitol Creek Caucus “is still very supportive of a conservation solution.”
Woodruff said he considers himself “an optimist” and is “hopeful that nothing changes” on a landscape that so many revere. In his view, the “ideal solution” would enable the monks to “live out their lives in peace” and enjoy the solitude for which the monastery is renowned.
“Unfortunately, that’s not up to us,” Woodruff said.
A light layer of snow covers the ground around St. Benedict’s Monastery in Old Snowmass on Nov. 7, 2024. The chapel and cloisters opened in 1958, designed to last hundreds of years.
At this point, it’s unclear what will happen to the monks who still live, work and pray at St. Benedict’s — even to the monks themselves. They have continued their life of spiritual contemplation throughout the transition, praying from the time they rise before dawn to the time they enter a “great silence” at night, and opening the chapel each morning for daily Mass. Well-attended Sunday services still fill the room with devoutly religious and spiritually curious visitors alike. The monks plan to offer Holy Thursday evening Mass, a Good Friday afternoon service and Easter Sunday morning Mass this week.
“The monastery schedule will remain the same for now,” Father Charles Albanese wrote in an email. “I don’t know what will happen as things become more definitive.”
Rogers indicated last year that the future of the Snowmass monks will depend on the wishes of the property’s next owner and the superior of the monastery to which the monks will be transferred.
In his March 18 email, Rogers would not say whether there is a date at which point the St. Benedict’s Monastery will shutter. He also would not specify whether the remaining monks might be called back to St. Joseph’s, allowed to remain at St. Benedict’s or moved to another monastery.
“I cannot offer any other comments because of strict confidentiality requirements,” Rogers wrote. “Please, say a prayer that all this comes to a happy conclusion.”
