Retreat Information

Please call the Guestmaster's Office at (661) 944-2178 for availability and to make your reservation. You will be asked to make a $75 per ROOM non-refundable, non-transferable deposit, preferably by credit card. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.

Please contact Fr. Patrick, Guestmaster, at (661) 944-2178, ext. 102 or send an e-mail to retreats@valyermo.com.

About Staying at the Monastery

First and foremost we would like to thank you for your interest in visiting and supporting us here at the St. Andrew's Abbey Retreat House. Your Retreat House experience will be unique and will differ than that of a hotel, an inn, or a bed-and-breakfast. If your expectations are derived from staying in such places, it's important to recalibrate them before arriving to a monastic retreat house so that your experience will be as peaceful and restorative as possible.

Whoever you may be, whatever may have brought you through our gate, you are welcome among us. Please don't feel that you are somehow intruding on the lives of those who live here.

Please do bear in mind that St. Andrew's Abbey is a living monastic community. For the monks, this place is home. It's where we pray, so an atmosphere of peace and tranquility is important and you are invited to respect this. It is also where we work, so there will be a certain ebb and flow of activity about the place and we ask your pardon if this should disturb your own quiet now and again.

The Abbey has much to offer that a hotel could not provide - not least the opportunity to share with the monks in the rhythm of the monastic day, with its round of liturgical prayer and community meals, its interstices of silence and of interpersonal encounter.

On the other hand, there is much that you might expect from a hotel which you'll find we cannot offer: We don't have round-the-clock front desk attendants; the Guestmaster's Office closes at 4:30 p.m. Our check-in time is 3:00 p.m. and check-out is 10:00 a.m. The Refectory is not a restaurant; meals are served at set times and if you are late you may find yourself rushed as our kitchen staff (or, at dinner, monks) move in to prepare the place for its next use. Your cell phone will probably not work here.

With an openness to new experience and a bit of flexibility, you may find your life changed by a few days at Valyermo!