Mount Saint Benedict Abbey was established in 1912 on 240 acres of land approximately 4300 feet above sea level, purchased by Dom Mayeul De Caigny, a Brazilian Benedictine monk from Trinidad and Andrew Gomez. By June 27, 1912, the land was officially Benedictine property.  The Archbishop of Port of Spain took offence to Dom Mayeul and his companions referring to Trinidad as “missionary territory”. Don Mayeul was told that there were over 100,000 Hindus in Trinidad and hoped to focus his efforts on evangelizing these groups. Trinidad was, however, converted to Catholicism following its discovery by Christopher Columbus in the 1500s.   On 6 October 1912, three monks arrived in Trinidad to establish the abbey: Dom Ambrose, Dom Paul and Dom Mayeul. The monks were welcomed by the nearby Parish of Arouca and were housed there until receiving more monks to begin construction of their property. On November 27, 1912, two more religious brothers were received: Brother Joseph Kleinmann and Brother Donatian Marcus. Brother Kleinmann, a carpenter, began to convert the small hut existing on the property into two rooms, an oratory, and a dormitory. Brother Kleinmann even went on to work on the challenge of bringing fresh water to the monastery. By laying down thousands of feet of pipe, this brother was able to bring water at the rate of five gallons per minutes from the Crown Lands ravine to the monastery. Soon, the Trinidadian people began to give the brothers furniture, cooking utensils, chickens, eggs, rice, and coffee.  On July 24, 1913, a contractor, A.D. Degazon was hired to construct a road that would provide a safe path from the bottom of the hill to the building site. Mayeul was responsible for purchasing several pieces of equipment for the Monks such as automated machines to cut and prepare wood and “a motor-driven unit to generate electricity”. The religious brothers were able to create the choir stall, flooring, and roofs for many of the buildings. The chapel structure stood at 68 by 21 feet, with the first Mass being celebrated on August 10, 1913.  In 1949 William Wellesley Campbell retired from his medical career in British Guiana to become Brother Simeon, serving at Mount Saint Benedict until his death in 1962.  Mount St Benedict is approximately 1.3 kilometres from Traum House Lodge.