Free Republic

They were dubbed the Millionaire Monks, a small monastic community in rural Wisconsin feted around the world for its wildly successful Internet business selling laser printer inks and toners. As recently as 2009, the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank was projecting annual sales of $3.5 million for its for-profit business, LaserMonks Inc. And their prior and chief executive officer, Father Bernard McCoy, was talking expansion - of both the company and the abbey. Today, the monks' 15,000-square-foot home on 500 acres in Sparta, Wis., is all but empty. They sold off their belongings - everything from furniture...

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:...