The community of Westmalle is the community of the dead and living brothers who have taken their vows of stability there since the foundation of the monastery in 1794.
The first monks to end up in Westmalle came from the Normandy monastery of La Trappe. During the French Revolution they fled the increasingly malevolent and adverse climate towards priests and monks. After many wanderings - an ‘Odyssey’ - a group of monks arrived in Antwerp, where they intended to leave for America. However, the then Bishop of Antwerp asked them to stay in his diocese. He granted them a small farm: the ‘Nooit Rust’ (Never Rest) farm. This name - undoubtedly once referring to the unremitting manual labour on the farm and in the fields - has always been a symbol of the ceaseless search of the monks for God, such that in fact they ‘never rest’.
The small farm was originally set up as a monastery. As the number of monks began to increase, it was constantly expanded. In 1836 the monastery became an abbey. Finally, the construction of the building that became the current monastery around 1900 was started on the site of the old ‘Never Rest’ farm. In the nineteen thirties the monastery complex expanded with a new cowshed and a new brewery.
