What is a Stift?
A Stift is in literal terms, an endowment or donation. The ancient monasteries of Austria and Germany were endowed by the nobility with extensive lands. The monasteries of Benedictines, Cistercians and Canons Regular are called the old Orders, and these have Stifts. A Kloster (cloister) is a monastery. The word comes from the Latin noun claustrum meaning bar or bolt, which comes from the verb claudere to close.
