This cemetery was in use from 1978 to 2021, while the site was the home of an active Trappist / Cistercian monastery. With the closure of the institution, the monks' remains were all removed.

While some of the monks' remains were initially buried at the location of the original monastery, they were removed a first time in about 1978 to this location. All the remains of the monks who lived and served in either location over the many decades of its existence were eventually relocated once again to in 2021 through 2023, when the operations were wound down and the monastery ceased to exist in Manitoba.

The remains were exhumed, cremated, and reinterred in a common grave. All markers were transferred and a commemorative marker was put in place in the northwest corner of the Saint Norbert Cemetery, in St Norbert, MB, an active cemetery near the historical site of the burned-out ruins of the original monastery.

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Nestled in the gentle rolling slopes of the Tiger Hills southeast of Holland [was] Manitoba's only Cistercian (Trappist) Monastery, and the only one in Canada west of the Manitoba-Ontario border.

From Highway 34, one sees looming above the treetops a bell tower and the familiar shape of a silo. The bell reminds the traveler of things spiritual: the silo, of matters temporal. Many continue their journey unaware that here. surrounded by 850 acres (~344 hectares) of farmland, is an abbey, Our Lady of the Prairies, home of 30 Trappist monks.

From 1892 to 1978 this monastery was located at St. Norbert, south of Winnipeg. Then in the mid-70's, faced with a costly sewer project plus possible expropriation of its land, the Trappists decided to sell and re-locate.

But where? If suitable surrounding could not be found in the immediate area they were prepared to move out of the diocese. After a long and frustrating search the monks received a message quite unexpectedly one day. Maurice Deleu of Holland was contemplating selling his farm. Would the monastery be interested?

It was. The location was approved (in fact, to the onlooker, it seems ideal) and by 1976 the Deleu property (known to locals as the Pennington place) had been purchased.

(Source: RM of Victoria, pp 183f [2002; Adapted])

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The Notre-Dame des Prairies Trappists Cemetery in Holland, MB, included remains origianlly exhumed from St Norbert, MB. The exhumed bones were buried in a mass grave at this location.

The earliest burial from St Norbert is R.P. J.-Baptiste who died in 1910.

The earliest burial at the Holland Monastery location was that of DOM Lucien, prieur-titulaire (1902-1986).

Source: Manitoba Genealogical Society [Adapted])

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Dominion Land Survey coordinates: LSD09-02-07-11-W1

In the Municipality of Victoria

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As noted above, a part of the community's story, and those of its inhabitants, from the time the monastery was established in Manitoba in 1892 through roughly 2002 is told in the volume "RM of Victoria", especially starting on page 183. A free digital version of this and many other Manitoba local history books can be found online in the University of Manitoba Digital Collections. There is also a list of such books organized by district and town name on the Manitoba Historical Society's website on their page entitled "Finding Aid: Manitoba Local History Books".

Though it is now a historical artefact, a list of burials in this cemetery is available from the Manitoba Genealogical Society (reference #0280), transcribed by a member or members in 1987 and updated in 2002. Also available to MGS members is a searchable online database named the "MGS Manitoba Name Index" (or MANI). Some additional information is contained in the 1996 MGS publication "Carved in Stone: Manitoba Cemeteries and Burial Sites" (revised edition, Special Projects Publication, 106 pages).