Monks Seek to Recruit High-Flying Execs

Unlike most ads in Switzerland's leading "executive search" magazine, a prominent one that appeared over the weekend was most notable for what it promised candidates they wouldn't get. Bankers-turned-monks will enjoy a life "free of personal material riches and a couple relationship," read the ad from the country's Capuchin order of monks, which is desperately trying to boost membership before it dies out altogether.

"We are chronically over-aged," a spokesman for the order tells the Independent. "There are hardly any people joining the order these days. We are suffering from what might be described as a personnel shortage." The number of monks in the order has dropped by half over the last decade and the Capuchins have been forced to close several monasteries—although the number of stressed executives heading to monasteries for periods of spiritual contemplation has surged in recent years.
(More monks stories.)