On September 10,1849, on a mere day's notice, Brother Kieran Patrick Mullany and 15 of his fellow Trappist monks were ordered by their abbot to depart their home, the Abbey of Mount Melleray in Ireland, for new assignment in America. Sailing from Liverpool, the monks reached New Orleans on November 6, then steamed north into winter for Dubuque, Iowa, as riverboat deck passengers. By their arrival 20 days later, 6 monks and 20 other passengers had died of cholera. The next day, the 10 surviving monks slogged 12 miles up the bluffs and across the winter prairie to their new home, the freshly minted Monastery of New Melleray.
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