The Benedictine Monastery of Thien An
located on Thien An hill,
belongs to Thuy Bang commune,
Huong Thuy district,
Thua Thien – Hue Province.
People call it in short name of “Thien An”,
founded in the summer of 1940.

Monastery is surrounded by pine trees,
quietly locates between the distance of King Thieu Tri's tomb and King Khai Dinh’s tomb.
Traveling among Thien An pine hill,
you will feel like you are somewhere in Dalat city.

Thien An is the first Benedictine community in Vietnam,
living under the common principle of the Benedictine world.
The guiding principles are "Prayer and Labor".
The monks are living the contemplative order,
ascetic in solitude,
in prayer and a simple life,
manual labor;
considerate and share the misery and suffering of everyone,
especially the poor people.
The monks live completely within the scope of the monastery,
there is no activity outside.
Monastery is not the place to visit.

Today, the monastery continued to try to create a quiet setting,
quiet to enable its members to go into the depth of religious life,
as well as enabling those who come here to retreat
and pray
and seek peace.

****O****

On 10th June, 1940,
the feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus,
a foundation was made by the monks of the Pierre-qui-Vire abbey, France,
received the name Thien An,
which means “heavenly peace”.

The monastery sits on a hilltop,
surrounded by tranquil hills of pine trees
outside the city of Hue.
There is much silence,
little distraction from the outside world
and the difficulties of the demanding common life.

The monastic life here attracts a good number of vocations.
A lot of young people come asking to enter,
but we can only accept a few
due to the lack of room and our poor economy.

We have no activity outside the cloister.
Our main work is tending orange grove.
Besides, we run a small souvenir shop and a retreat center,
which houses about 40 retreatans
and is frequently used by religious
and the faithful all over the country.

Earlier 1935, some Benedictine monks from France
first came to Vietnam,
and made the first monastic foundation in Dalat.
Now there are 4 Benedictine monasteries in Vietnam:
Thien An in Hue,
Thien Hoa in Daklak,
Thien Binh in Dong Nai
and Thien Phuoc in Hochiminh City.
With the headcount now stands at 68 solemn monks,
the Vietnamese provincial abbey was separated
from French provincial abbey in 1997.

Its first abbot visitor was Fr. Thadaeus Pham Quang Dien
from Thien Binh monastery,
and now the second is abbot Stephen Huynh Quang Sanh
from Thien An abbey.