The monk business is good business (Can a Monk be a Millionaire?)

MONROE COUNTY, Wis. - Nearly a decade ago, a tiny group of monks in this rural stretch of western Wisconsin realized they might have been too successful at following a vow of poverty. Their income a pittance, their home desperately in need of repair and with few prospects for help, the six monks of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank prayed for divine intervention - and brainstormed within the brotherhood for businesses they might start.One day as the Rev. Bernard McCoy was printing out entrepreneurial ideas on the monastery's aging computer, an idea came to him: Ink - for printer cartridges. "Nine hundred years ago, our forefathers were charged with making ink and creating the tools for illuminating manuscripts," said McCoy, 40, chief executive of the company they would found. "We figured, 'Why can't we do the same thing now?' ''

Today, thanks to LaserMonks Inc., which sells computer printing and office supplies over the Internet - the abbey is rich. LaserMonks pulled in about $4 million in sales last fiscal year, and is expected to reach nearly $7 million in 2007. The bounty has raised a strange dilemma. It has allowed the monastery to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to nonprofit groups around the world. But it also has brought a standard of living that could be seen as excessive - for monks, at least. They own a plane to take them to the motivational speeches they give around the country to would-be entrepreneurs. They bought two purebred Peruvian Paso horses. They've built a private art studio for one monk with a talent for oil painting, and a well-stocked wood shop for another skilled in sculpture. They've splurged on an elaborate model train set and matching 1950s river town in the basement.

How, the monks now regularly ask themselves, do you maintain a simple spiritual life when you've become a multimillionaire? They answer most often with a grin and a shrug. "Ours is supposed to be a life of detachment," said Brother David Klecker, 31. "But it's hard to be truly detached when you can be so comfortable.'' The abbey's success has allowed Klecker, trained as a software engineer, the luxury of buying digital video equipment and top-of-the-line editing software used by Hollywood visual-effects teams to create vocational videos for YouTube. Each morning, around 4, a digital bell gently tolls inside the two-story, tan-colored abbey, where bay windows look out onto rolling hills of emerald-green cornstalks and dense groves of oak trees. On the second floor, the monks rise from their rough-hewn beds. Each sleeps inside a modest cell, no bigger than a large walk-in closet.

In the dark, the men slip first into casual attire - jeans and button-down shirts on cooler days, shorts and T-shirts when the weather turns warm - and then don their robes. The white tunic, with full sleeves that drape over their hands like fabric bells, is paired with a simple black scapular. They head downstairs to the abbey's main living area and chapel. Structuring their days around the credo ora et labora (pray and work), the monks gather eight times a day to chant and pray. In between, they help a trio of lay workers with bookkeeping. They develop marketing plans and take customer inquiries about the latest deals on toner. The entrepreneurial spirit that has driven LaserMonks to success is as innate for Cistercians as their fondness for Gregorian chant. The order historically has been innovative, as members tended to come from well-educated, upper-class families, said E. Rozanne Elder, director of the Institute of Cistercian Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. In the Middle Ages, the order engineered water sources to generate power and create central heating systems. Cistercian monks became renowned for their meticulous hand-copying of religious texts.

The monks don't take a salary, although the for-profit enterprise does pay taxes. After the costs of running the company and maintaining the abbey are covered - which eats up about 85 percent of the profits - the monks distribute what remains to several dozen charities, including a Vietnamese school for orphans, a Costa Rican group that helps the children of impoverished farmers, and a Minnesota summer camp for kids with AIDS. It also funds its own Torchlight Foundation, which helps schools pay for curriculum to teach students socially responsible business practices. The horses? An indulgence for exercise and communing with nature. But the thoroughbreds also are being trained for use by friends in Texas, who run an animal-based therapy retreat for Iraq war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress.

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