MOSTEIRO NOSSA SENHORA DO ROSARIO
VALE CÔVO
(Diocese of Evora)
Vale Côvo
2100-300 Couço
PORTUGAL
Phone / fax : +351 243 65 93 16
Cell phone : +351 916 17 85 86 and 916 95 46 47
In 2001, the monastic Family of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno answers the call of Bishop Gilberto Canavarro dos Reis, of Setubal, to start a foundation in the country of Our Lady of Fatima but in this Diocese all efforts to obtain a building permit lead nowhere.
In 2007, a terrain located in Couço, in the Diocese of Evora, is offered to the community: it gathers all the conditions for the construction of a monastery for the disciples of Saint Bruno. On June 24th 2011, the Archbishop of Evora, Jose Alves, blesses the first stone of the monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary. On June 24th 2013 a primary part of the monastery is inaugurated: a small chapel, six cells, a refectory and a kitchen. Henceforth, a few sisters live there in solitary prayer and in joyful divine praise. Prefab building site cabins allow the rapid growth of the number of cells and workshops.
The warm welcome and the realistic help of the region’s inhabitants seem to confirm that this new monastery corresponds well to a project of God for these lands in the heart of Portugal which, in many regards, are a desert, “a dry and weary land without water”, awaiting the seed and the dew from heaven.
The presence of women in this desert is surprising… confounding… questioning… what are they doing there? They do what Mary does, what the Church does: this Woman clothed with the son who flees far from the Dragon, wages a relentless war against him, in the desert. Her powerful and invincible weapon is the holy Rosary. Doesn’t She urgently request to make of the Rosary a life, and of life a permanent Rosary?
