One of about 40 Benedictine monasteries in the United States, Assumption Abbey was established by Swiss monks in the 1890s, located near this rail-stop town because it was populated by Roman Catholic, German-speaking immigrants from Russia and Hungary. (Many of the monks, including Brother Placid, share that heritage.)

For decades, the abbey grew its own food and raised pigs, chickens and dairy cows for consumption and profit, but as these became unprofitable, beef ranching became the last vestige of a farming heritage. Brother Michael Taffe, 51, who earned a doctorate in psychology before becoming a monk at 40, said the loss of the cattle would cause “a grieving process.”

Brother Michael is in charge of recruitment efforts, which include visits to Catholic schools and advertisements in Catholic magazines. He said four men had seemed like potential candidates in recent years and came for trial stays, but decided the life was not for them.

Many of the monks entered in their teens or early 20s, in some cases after attending the boarding high school and two-year college the abbey ran until 1971, when the cost became prohibitive. In today’s world of vaster choices, the abbey would be wary of someone so young, Brother Michael said. Candidates must truly know, he said, that “this will make me whole.”

The order harks back to St. Benedict, who in the sixth century laid out rules for monasteries that would be apart from society but not cloistered, where monks would live communally, without personal property, sharing kitchen and cleaning duties and spending most of their time in prayer or work. Nuns also draw on the tradition, in Benedictine convents.

Once they join, monks are expected to spend the rest of their lives with the abbey. Each day, they attend prayer services at 6:20 a.m. and 11:40 a.m., Mass at 5 p.m. and vespers at 7 p.m., and spend more time in solitary prayer or study. Many wear street clothes during the day — Brother Placid wears blue jeans and a Western shirt — but all wear habits for the evening services.

Many also pursue special interests like gardening, tending bluebird houses, keeping bees or making scented soaps to sell to visitors.