Karen O'Connor, age 12, of Jackson, Tenn., for her question:

WHAT IS A TRAPPIST?

A Trappist is a monk who belongs to a Roman Catholic order called the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. A Trappist will devote most of his time to prayer and meditation although he will do manual labor for many hours during the day.

A Trappist will sleep on boards and straw pillows and observe strict rules of fasting and silence. He does these things as penance for sin.

The head of a Cistercian monastery in La Trappe, France, reformed the Cistercian order in 1664. The reformed order came to be known as Trappists, after the monastery's name.

A famous American poet and religious writer named Thomas Merton became a Trappist monk at the monastery of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky. He described his life in a popular 1948 book called "The Seven Storey Mountain."