GREAT WEEKENDS

great weekends For Peace and Quiet—and Some Surprises— Try Checking into a Benedictine Monastery

Spending the weekend at a monastery would never have occurred to me if I hadn't already come across the one in St. David a few years before. So I knew about the peacefulness of the Holy Trinity Monastery and its bucolic southern Arizona setting on the San Pedro River. And I knew the Benedictines there accepted overnight guests, albeit in spartan accommodations and with an early "curfew." Just the thing, I thought, for a break from the bustle of Tucson, less than an hour's drive away via Interstate 10 and State Route 80. But what if I tired of all that solitude? As it turned out, I found enough things to do - both at the monastery and in and around St. David - to keep from overloading on peace and quiet.

The monastery itself offered a surprising museum and a great bird walk, not to mention the architectural beauty of its church. In St. David, I found both funky stores and shops and small-town dining with the kind of small-town prices we don't see much anymore. I even picked up some edible souvenirs to take back to the big city with me.

As I approached the monastery, thoughts of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz came to mind. When you cross the San Pedro River and enter St. David, the abrupt change in the landscape is as startling as if you had been knocked unconscious on a Kansas farm and woke up in the Emerald City. Two miles east or west of town, you're in desert surrounded by creosote bushes and stubby mesquite trees. But as soon as you enter St. David, giant cottonwood, ash, and elm trees line both sides of the road. Lush green pastures replace the desert scrub, and prim clapboard houses appear here and there along with artesian wells. If the transformation of the terrain provides the first surprise, the monastery delivers the second. Far from resembling a cave or 10th-century fortress where reclusive men live in isolation, Holy Trinity is decidedly New World.

Founded in 1974, the monastery consists of a collection of small trailers and modest houses and a graceful rammedearth church with vigas of ponderosa pine. Inside the church, the Stations of the Cross are made of hand-carved wood. The altar represents something of the surrounding area: An oval-shaped table, its base came from a black walnut tree cut down in the nearby town of Pomerene, and its top came from Sonora, Mexico.

For me, the most unforgettable aspect of the church was the effect of light bending through the beveled glass in the windows. Because of the bevels and the spacing of the windows, sunlight refracted through the glass creates a rainbow effect that depending on the time of day and the season gradually moves from one Station of the Cross to the next.

The monastery sits in the middle of an oasis of old trees and dense riverside forest where sunlight barely penetrates. Stands of hairy-barked salt cedars along the river form a natural canopy over one of the monastery's hiking-birding trails and in the warmer months keeps the area 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the fields close to the monastery's offices.

Despite its otherworldly tranquility, life here for the 11 monks, two nuns, and 30 oblates is anything but isolated. In fact, on two weekends each year in May and November up to 12,000 people overrun the place, attracted by the big arts and crafts fairs that serve as the monastery's main fund-raising events. Looking mostly for peace and quiet this visit in early May, I'd miss the Spring Fiesta the following week. Maybe next time.

As in other Benedictine communities, the residents of Holy Trinity are dedicated to prayer and physical labor. But they also take a strong interest in the area's ecology and its cultural resources, which is why they developed a 42-acre bird sanctuary on the property and started the museum.

True it's no cave and it's no medieval castle, but Holy Trinity's not a resort, either. The Guest rooms are simple, each offering two double beds, a lamp, a sink, a bathroom with a shower stall. No TV. No telephone. No chair. No desk. There's a notice that you should change the sheets before you leave, and another about the rule of silence: You're expected to keep it down (the "curfew") from 8:30 P.M. until 8:30 A.Μ. This is a monastery, after all.

A sign in the monastery's communal dining room offers a hint of the kind of attitude you'll need to enjoy your stay: "Blessed Are the Flexible, for They Shall Not Be Bent Out of Shape." And that's a good thing to keep in mind at mealtime. The fare here is hardy but simple, the sort you might find on any farm table. My dinner consisted of salad, meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, and string beans mixed with rice.

The fields and ponds on the monastery's 92-acre compound along with the fertile channel of the San Pedro provide an excellent living for a variety of birds, including great horned owls, Harris' hawks, ferruginous hawks, vermilion flycatchers, blue grosbeaks, summer tanagers, warblers, and thrashers. There have been sightings of such rare birds as the green

kingfisher, crested caracara, rusty blackbird, eastern phoebe, and the black-shouldered kite. During my stay, two great blue herons took up residence in one of the ponds.

I hiked both of the gentle trails, the short one that meanders through the bird sanctuary and the mile-plus one that goes down to the river then loops back to the sanctuary. At the end of my hike, I stopped to enjoy the shade in a meditation garden adjacent to the church. There I found a small pond with a red Japanese-style bridge, all shaded by giant trees. "Some people come here for spiritual counseling," Sister Corinne observed, "but others come just to be in the country and to sit in the gardens and watch the birds."

After a rest in the garden, I headed for the monastery's library and was astonished by the breadth of its collection. As expected, books on theology dominate, but there's also a good choice of Southwestern classics, both fiction and nonfiction. Mysteries by such writers as Ellis Peters and G.K. Chesterton fill several shelves.

Then it was on to the museum, where each room presents a different theme. One room is devoted to Native American crafts, another to pioneer settlement, a third to religious materials, and a fourth houses a collection of Nativity scenes from around the world.

After a quiet night in my room, I decided to explore St. David. First stop: Memories Unlimited, a 1920s' house crammed with antiques and collectibles and presided over by its irrepressible owner, Gwen DeLuca. I wandered from room to room and saw Victorian hats, radios from the 1940s, old cowboy boots, a bear's head, antique Japanese porcelain, and a vintage Winchester rifle. Gwen told me she also owns the St. David Bed and Breakfast in a house across the street from her store. The B&B offers just two bedrooms but, as you might expect, they're accented with some of her fa-vorite antiques.

As I ended my stay at the monastery the next day, I stopped for a bite at Smokin' Frijoles, where an order of delicious French toast cost me $2.49. For the same price, I could have ordered pancakes or two eggs and two sausages or a small ham steak. "I don't think anybody has seen prices like these since the '60s," said Jerry Wood, the owner.

Heading back to Tucson, I made a few stops. The first was at Rolf and Mary Luetcke's Sunshine Gallery and Gifts, a couple of miles south of Benson. In addition to first-class mineral specimens, fine art photographs, and a collection of plants and insects, Rolf also offers tips on what to see and do around Cochise County. If you've run out of ideas, he's the man to talk to.

After leaving the gallery, I checked in at The Horse Shoe Cafe, an old favorite in Benson. Besides the food, what I always enjoy about this particular 60year-old landmark is the large neon horseshoe that decorates the ceiling and the southern Arizona brands burned into a post in the middle of the dining room.

The kind of souvenirs I like to take home from a trip, I found at D & D Pecans and Farmer's Market just south of Benson on the outskirts of St. David. Here, I had my choice of sweet corn, cucumbers, tomatoes all produced on farms in the area. This trip I picked up some pecans and chatted awhile with the local farmer who grows them.

The highlights of my weekend aren't something you'll find in the big cities or even in the Emerald City but somehow they're out of this world nonetheless.

WHEN YOU GO

LOCATION: 60 miles southeast of downtown Tucson. WEATHER: Average temperature in May: high, 85° F.; low, 50° F. PHONE NUMBERS: All are in area code (520). LODGING: Holy Trinity Monastery offers 11 rooms, and the rates include three meals; RV spaces with full hookups also are available. For rates and reservations, call 720-4016, ext. 17. Other overnight options include the St. David Bed and Breakfast, 247 E. Patton St., in St David. Call 720-4450 or 720-4044 for more information and reservations. Benson, five miles northwest of St. David, and Tombstone, 16 miles to the southeast, offer additional choices. RESTAURANTS: Smokin' Frijoles, 33 E. Patton, St. David; 720-4397. Horse Shoe Cafe, 154 E. 4th St., Benson; 586-3303. ATTRACTIONS: The annual Spring Fiesta will be held at the monastery, Saturday and Sunday, May 15-16. Activities include an arts and crafts show, live music, folk dancing, book sales, and religious services on Sunday. American and ethnic foods will be available. Admission is free; a $1 donation is requested for parking. Sunshine Gallery and Gifts, at Milepost 296, St. David; 720-4518. D & D Pecans and Farmer's Market, 600 S. Highway 80; 720-4675. Memories Unlimited, Highway 80, St. David, 720-4044. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Benson & San Pedro Valley Chamber of Commerce, 363 W. 4th St., Benson, AZ 85602; 586-2842.