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Running a monastery these days includes having good business sense. Plankstetten Abbey, in Bavaria, has a community of only twelve brothers, but the monastery is thriving. St Benedict’s motto was "Pray and Work.” Between prayers, these Benedictine monks run a highly successful organic farm.
The monks are so busy that they hardly have time to pray together. As well as farming and running a popular guesthouse they have a large bakery and a slaughterhouse. The abbey employs more than 120 lay people. With a turnover of five million euros annually there’s a lot of work to be done. Plankstetten has its own shops, as well as supplying markets, organic stores and other retailers. The abbey also has a library with over 120,000 volumes to maintain. Our reporter Sylvia Wassermann shows how prayer and work are combined in the Benedictine ideal.