THE MONKS OF Glenstal Abbey have taken on a new habit for a religious community – they have launched their own iPhone app. The Benedictine order are even ahead of the curve, simultaneously making the app available on the Android platform.

The clerics set up the app last December, according to their website (where else?). Conall O Fatharta in today’s Irish Examiner quotes one of the brothers as saying that they got the idea from businessman Dermot Desmond. Fr Simon Sleeman said:

I was doing a wedding and I met Dermot Desmond. Dermot had his iPad on his lap and he asked me: ‘Simon, where is the app for Glenstal?’ So I said to him that I would get one going.

Fr Sleeman did admit though that he doesn’t own an iPhone. But if you thing there’s not much to report from a monkish lifestyle, you’d be wrong. Glenstal Abbey, based in Co Limerick, and previous publishers of a prayer book and DVDs of monk chanting, said:

The application provides the latest news from the Abbey, daily prayer – morning and evening for each day of the week, a selection of Gregorian chants and quotes from the Rule of St Benedict. Some general information about Glenstal Abbey is also included.