‘We don’t want to be seen as a boy band.’

                 (Father Karl Wallner, spokesman for the Stift Heiligenkreuz monks)

Who would have believed that a CD made by a group of Cistercian monks could outsell Amy Winehouse and Emminem? ‘Ah, but they were singing Rap, or Blues or something, right?’ Actually, no. They were singing Gregorian Chants: prayers in the form of praise to God, in Latin, and they live and work in an eight hundred and seventy five year old monastery buried deep in the Vienna woods.

Who would have believed it? But it’s true.

Here’s the story: Recording giant Universal Music, placed an advert for singers of sacred music in the religious press; February 29th was the closing date for applications. They were inundated with replies from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and from many other European countries.

How did the Brothers from Stift Heiligenkreuz come to apply? Father Karl Wallner, Theology lecturer, Media Spokesman and Website Manager explains: ‘On February 28th a friend of our monastery in London sent me an e-mail with a link to the notice from Universal Music about their search for Gregorian singers with the words, “Quick, Karl! Quick!”

‘I had never heard of Universal, I didn’t know what it was about, but the following day – the last day of the competition – I sent an e-mail to Universal with a link to the Gregorian Chant samples on our website.’

When Tom Lewis, the Development Manager of Universal called Father Karl it began to sink in what a great opportunity it was to share their tradition.

‘We did not seek this out ourselves,’ explained Father Karl. ‘We did not ambitiously try to push ourselves on the world. Rather, it is really the hand of God which brought us this opportunity to give him glory. We have no desire to become a boy band; we will remain monks.’

How do you explain the phenomenal popularity of the CD; ‘Chant, Music for Paradise’?

‘There is a big emptiness in the hearts of men, and it’s the church’s fault,’ said Father Karl. ‘We have forgotten that people have souls and we have treated our work as an intellectual activity. The Roman Catholic Church has historically been a church that appeals to the senses, but we have forgotten that.

‘When people hear our music, they don’t hear the words, because we sing in Latin, the official language of the Roman Catholic Church, but the music opens their hearts. Society is becoming very secular, but there is an increasing appreciation of the need for a spiritual dimension to people’s lives. People are searching for Gurus, they chase after strange phenomenon, but the Gregorian Chant is the music of angels, it is simple and poignant, it connects heaven and earth. On average, three hundred people come into our Monastery every day in the Vienna Woods to listen to us.’

How will the CD change the life of the monastery? Father Karl says, ‘Why should it change our lives? After all, what is recorded on the CD is nothing more than what we do from dawn to dusk: sing, praise and meditate.’

Having said that, Father Abbot has taken certain wise precautions; only Father Karl will give interviews, so that the other monks need not have their silence unduly disturbed by the publicity. And the singing monks will certainly not perform on the stage; ‘Our only stage is our monastery, to hear us live you will have to come and visit us - and of course everyone is welcome!’ – on average there are 170,000 visitors each year, and that’s set to increase.

Father Karl describes himself as an ‘old monk’ – he’s 45! Some of the younger monks were suspicious at first, ‘They said they didn’t enter the monastery to hear “holy, happy melodies”, they didn’t want the world to follow them into the monastery, but it hasn’t been like that. Universal have been so sensitive that any concerns the younger men had have quickly disappeared.’

Finally, the money, what do they intend doing with the money?

‘We don’t know whether the CD will be a success or not,’ says Father Karl. ‘We hope it will, since we need money. Not only do we have to maintain a huge medieval Abbey, we also have many seminarians from Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria, who study theology here and whose studies we have to finance somehow. So if money comes from this CD that would be good - that also would be a gift from God, and we would use it only for him.

‘In any case, people seem to have unrealistic ideas about the financial side of this project. We have a good contract with Universal but it is not as though the monastery will automatically make millions from it.

‘For some time we had been planning to make a new chant recording. To have made it on our own would have cost a lot. That problem is now solved. It is really a gift from God that we can sing for him, and that our singing is able to give many people peace and strength. And with those proceeds we can continue to do good.’

The CD is now in the shops. To find out more about the monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz or to buy online, check out the websites: www.chantmusicforparadise.com or www.classicsandjazz.co.uk

‘Seventeen monks sang for the recording. They were themselves surprised at how beautiful it sounded. It was other-worldly. Why? Because one could sense that it was not merely an artistic performance but rather a prayerful song which came out of their hearts.’ (Father Karl Wallner).