In 1890 a group of French monks was sent to establish a contemplative monastery at Latrun. The monks bought 200 hectares on the hilltop and built the monastery dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows which is still active today. At the end of the Ottoman era, the Turks expelled the monistic community, and the buildings stood empty from 1914 to 1918.
In 1926 they returned and began rebuilding the monastery. In 1937 it was given the status of an abbey. The monastery building was designed by the monastery’s first abbot and has stained-glass windows made by the monks. From 1931 to 1963 the monastery ran a Juniorate school for boys. The community thrived, they worked the land and established a vineyard.
