Trappist Monastery, Guimaras

The Monastery of Our Lady of the Philippines at Jordan is the only Trappist house in the country, founded in the 1970s in the hills of Guimaras among the mango orchards the island is known for. Trappists follow the Rule of Saint Benedict in its strictest form - silence, manual labour and a fixed cycle of prayer - and the monastery supports itself the way such communities do, by making and selling food: mango jams and preserves, dried mangoes, piaya, peanut butter and jellies, sold at a shop by the gate that is the reason most visitors come at all. The chapel is open and visitors may attend the office; the enclosure is not. It is a quiet place in a quiet part of an already quiet island, and it fits into the standard Guimaras circuit of mango farms, the Guisi lighthouse and the southern beaches, reached from Iloilo in a fifteen-minute ferry crossing.

What you actually see

• The chapel - open for prayer and the daily office.
• The monastery shop - mango preserves and the community's produce.
• The orchard setting - mango hills around the buildings.
• The Trappist quiet - silence kept across the grounds.

When to go

November to May for travel. Mornings, around the office hours; the shop keeps its own limited hours and closes early.

Honest expectations

It is an enclosed religious community - only the chapel and shop are open, silence is expected, and there are no tours. The shop can sell out of popular items. Getting there needs a jeepney or tricycle from Jordan port.

Nearby

Guimaras' mango farms, the Guisi lighthouse and the southern beaches are elsewhere on the island; Iloilo is a short ferry away.