Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps
Coban, Guatemala
Monastery Facts
Resurrection Priory was established in 1970 by the Benedictines of Blue Cloud Abbey in Marvin, South Dakota. The original projects of the monastery included founding the first Catholic radio station in Guatemala and forming a Savings and Credit Cooperative. 
Recently, Resurrection Priory has been building and operating schools in small, indigenous communities about an hour north of Cobán.
There are currently fifteen monks living at Resurrection Priory. Three are from Blue Cloud Abbey in South Dakota and the remaining twelve are from Guatemala. Since only one of the monks from Guatemala speaks English, the primary language of the monastery is Spanish.
Visit Resurrection Priory’s home site.
Work of the SJBVC
The SJBVC Volunteers have been involved in two main tasks through the monastery’s missions. These assignments include teaching English in the small indigenous communities surrounding Cobán, where most of the people speak the 
native language of Q'eqchi, and setting up the new school near the monastery in Cobán. The school in Cobán is being set up as a media learning center where both children and adults will attend. Volunteers work with monks and employees of the monastery.
Volunteers live in the abbey cloister alongside the other monks. Volunteers all have single rooms furnished with a desk, bed, nightstand, closet and private bathroom. Meals are provided and prepared by the monastery. Beans and tortillas are staples and are served three times a day. Meat, almost exclusively chicken, is served once a day with the exception of Friday.
