The Trappist Reform Begins At La Trappe

In 1664, Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé introduced an austere reform at La Trappe Abbey in Normandy, France. The reform renewed strict monastic observance within Cistercian life and gave the later Trappist movement its name, which comes from La Trappe. The formal Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance was created only much later, in 1892, when three Trappist congregations united as a separate order distinct from the Cistercian Order. The 1664 reform at La Trappe remains the historical starting point of the Trappist tradition that later included the monastery breweries associated with Trappist beer.