St-Benoît is a major tourist site, attracting between 100,000 and 200,000 visitors per year, between 10,000 and 20,000 people visit each week in the peak summer months. Some visitors come to sample the famous St-Benoît cheese, which the monks produce on the premises. Others come for the apple cider, produced from apples grown in the Abbey’s orchards. Dom Paul Vannier purchased an old farm on the shore of Lake Memphremagog. For the first years of its existence the tiny community struggled due to poverty and isolation. Poor living conditions and hard work took their toll. Making things even worse, Dom Vannier drowned in a boating accident on the lake. When two Canadian monks went to Europe to appeal for support, the group was granted an official pardon.