But it was at the Trappist monastery of Mepkin Abbey that all the pieces finally fell into place.

FORBES: Passing It On

By 960 AD, the church had become a Benedictine monastery, and the Abbey's black-robed monks were familiar figures at Westminster for almost 600 years, until Henry VIII split from Rome.

BBC: The hidden history of Westminster

Recent reports that Abbey Saint Sixtus, the Trappist monastery at Westvleteren in Belgium, might boost production of its much-cherished beer and sell it through supermarket channels led to the consumption of considerable bandwidth on beer discussion boards.

FORBES: Is Westvleteren about to boost production?