Benedictine Order Research Articles

Signorie e monasteri nella Sicilia normanna

Abstract This essay reflects on the role of monasteries in the process of defining the structure of the aristocracy in Norman Sicily, with the aim of contributing to scholarship on this theme on the island in the 12th century. The topic is addressed starting from an analysis of the political and devotional choices made by the Aleramici, the most important Sicilian lords of the 12th century, within their domains, where they founded or restored churches and monasteries linked to the Benedictine order and to Palestinian shrines. This made it possible to examine the processes underlying the establishment of the monastery of Santa Maria di Licodia in 1143, on the initiative of Simone del Vasto. As can be deduced from the study of the privilege issued by the island lord, this foundation had a multiplicity of motivations, principally religious and devotional, but also linked to the control and management of the vast Aleramic lordship. Established as a family monastery, this cenoby was granted by Simone to the abbey of Sant’Agata in Catania, one of the most important monastic and episcopal sees of Sicily in the 12th century. The extent of the lands assigned by the Aleramico, the rights granted to goods and men, combined with the initiative shown by the priors of the monastic community of Licodia, must have allowed Santa Maria to become an abbey in the early thirteenth century. Over the following centuries, it thus became one of the most important meeting places for the Sicilian aristocratic élite.

The Abbesses of Iceland

The female monasteries that operated in Iceland during medieval times, Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Reynistaðarklaustur, are the largest- and longest-operating institutions run by women to ever exist in the country. The names of the abbesses—the leaders of the female monasteries, some of which led the monasteries for up to half a century—are known from written documents and material remains that describe the abbesses’ diverse tasks and obligations while in office. In the article, the stories of the Icelandic abbesses will be told not only in order to highlight their contributions to the overall development of medieval Icelandic society but also to show their influence on the lives of people, lay and religious, in the country. Moreover, the abbesses’ stories demonstrate how each of them managed to synchronize with their natural and social surroundings while faithfully keeping their dedication to the Benedictine Order.

Cultivating Community through Language Learning in a Benedictine Seminary Network

St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, a seminary located in southern Indiana, was founded in 1857 by monks of the Benedictine order of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. The seminary has since been devoted to the education of faith leaders—priests, deacons, and graduate lay students. Due to the growth of underserved Latino populations in the Midwest region of the United States, there is a need to prepare future faith leaders to serve Latino congregations. This work provides an exploration into the ways in which language learning collaborations based on Benedictine hospitality can cultivate community. It outlines a Benedictine pedagogy of community that is threefold. First, given the importance of language to communicate with members of Latino communities in the United States, the cultivation of community is understood in terms of the world readiness standards of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Second, because Benedictine monasteries were founded on the value of hospitality, these interactions are imbued with Benedictine hospitality. Third, it is argued that Benedictine communities are contexts in which the liminal intertwines with the liminoid, resulting in fertile ground for the creation of what we call liminal/liminoid encounters that have the potential to level asymmetric power relations and lead to meaningful dialogue. The final section shows how this Benedictine pedagogy of community is enacted in one specific Spanish language learning immersion that takes place at a sister Benedictine Monastery abroad, Our Lady of Angels, in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It also provides a small sample of seven students’ responses to two critical questions from a survey questionnaire. Even though this small qualitative sample is not generalizable, it helps illuminate how these interactions may lead to the development of cultural sensitivity, of a sense of community, between students and members of this language learning immersion abroad. Responses indicate that students who participated in this program for at least eight weeks exhibit an interest in continuing to interact and collaborate in multicultural communities as well as a willingness to learn the target language beyond this experience.

“Maria Simoa, Who Birthed Twenty-Four Children”: Slavery, Motherhood, and Freedom on the Benedictine Estates, Pernambuco, Brazil, 1866–1871

Abstract This article explores gradual manumission policies on the Order of Saint Benedict's slaveholdings in the Northeastern province of Pernambuco, Brazil, between 1866 and 1871. Relying on private religious records from the Monastery of Saint Benedict of Olinda (in Pernambuco) and parliamentary debates, we contend that the Benedictine order was the first corporate enslaver to implement institutionalized strategies of gradual manumission in Brazil. To do so, they relied both on enslaved women's reproductive capabilities and on their adherence to church-sanctioned gender roles. We further argue that the order's decisions and actions were ahead of national developments in several important ways, and that, to some degree, these projects were a test case for future national abolitionist policies. Although the congregation did not involve itself in political debates, its actions created a working example of gradual abolition based on enslaved women's bodies that abolitionists used to make their case nationally.

Guéranger’s Révolution: Fire to a Movement through Fidelity to Tradition

Guéranger’s RévolutionFire to a Movement through Fidelity to Tradition Ryan T. Ruiz (bio) Keywords Catholic liturgy, Catholic liturgical movement, Dom Prosper Guéranger, Solesmes, Benedictine revival, Gregorian chant, nineteenth-century French Catholicism Introduction: The Revolutionary Nature of Tradition On the centenary of the death of Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805– 1875)—the restorer of the Benedictine Order in France following the tumultuous events of the late eighteenth-century French Revolution—Pope St. Paul VI (1963–1978) reflected on the legacy of the abbot of Solesmes and his contribution to the life of the Church. Identifying Guéranger’s status as the grandfather of the Liturgical Movement, a movement that came to its zenith in the early twentieth century and inspired the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, St. Paul VI stated that “there is every reason . . . to call Dom Guéranger the author of that movement of spirituality which, issuing from his writings and the monasteries associated with him, has had as its result that the intense participation of the Christian people in the liturgy is to be considered as ‘the first and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit.’”1 At a time of great upheaval to the fabric of European society and the Church, in which even two successive popes—Pius VI and Pius VII—found themselves imprisoned by the excesses of a fervent revolutionary spirit, this diocesan priest turned Benedictine monk and abbot’s primary aim in life [End Page 55] was to reinstill in the lives of his contemporaries the “true Christian spirit,” a spirit that was rooted in sacred tradition manifested by the unifying beauty of the Church’s liturgical patrimony. For Guéranger, a man shaped by the age of near constant révolution in which he lived, tradition was everything. Ironically, though, this stance made him quite revolutionary. Even today, at least in Western society, the term “traditionalist” has morphed into a quasi-pejorative, indicating, to some, a radical lack of willingness to think openly and creatively about new possibilities. Such an interpretation, however, completely misreads the proper definition of the term, at least from the standpoint of the genius of Catholicism. What is “tradition” from the perspective of this universal Faith? Using the thought of the twentieth-century Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, one can find a baseline definition. Delivering a speech in 1959 entitled “What Is, in Truth, Worth Preserving,” a speech that commemorated the rebuilding of a school in Münster, Germany, Pieper noted something about tradition that can be said to reflect the Catholic sensibilities of Prosper Guéranger and his desire to restore the Roman liturgy to her unique place in the life of the Church. In his speech at the Münster school, Pieper stated that tradition and the fostering of tradition are not things worth celebrating merely because what has “from time immemorial” been thought, said, and done simply continues to be thought, said, and done over the course of a hundred or a thousand years and even down to our own day. Rather: the glory of tradition—the content and the process of tradition—can only be seen as meaningful if, throughout the generations, what is truly worth preserving is preserved and continues to be preserved!2 As he continued his speech, Pieper clarified that “there is . . . ultimately only one single traditional inheritance that it is absolutely necessary to preserve: the gift that is received and handed on in sacred tradition, received again, and handed on.”3 [End Page 56] This definition of tradition aligns well with that of Guéranger, who held that “one of the fundamental aspects of the Church in her celebration of the Liturgy is that of confession,” which in this context meant “the act by which ‘the Church renders homage to the truth that she has received.’”4 Subsequently, tradition, and the liturgy that embodies tradition, is not something maintained merely for the sake of nostalgia; rather, tradition is maintained because it is something “truly worth preserving.” And while this sentiment is not necessarily revolutionary, we can appreciate how—alongside everything else in the Gospel—it can be a wonderfully...

Fascist space and film: spatial practice and ideology in El Valle de los Caídos (1963) and La sombra de la cruz (2013)

ABSTRACT This article analyzes how film reproduces and/or contests the spatial practices of the most emblematic fascist monument in Spain, the Valley of the Fallen. I focus on two documentary representations of the monument made by foreigners, Hollywood director Andrew Marton’s El Valle de los Caídos (1963) and Italian Alessandro Pugno’s La sombra de la cruz (2013). I analyze how montage and cinematography tell a story of a Francoist space in two distinct moments in time. Though products of considerably different historical and social contexts, both documentaries tell a similar narrative of a monk who joins the Benedictine order located in the Valley, and both works seek to translate a national Spanish essence to a wider audience through a cinematic representation of a symbolic space. Marton’s film, a product of Samuel Bronston Productions, is a performance of the spatial aspirations and ideals of the Franco regime: we observe a “will to architecture” and a desire to create or recreate what Lefebvre calls “absolute space” through long shots and a filmic-cartographic aviator gaze. In the contemporary film La sombra de la cruz (2013), the gaze is dissonant and full of temporal and spatial contrasts, revealing the fragility, frictional core and threat of fascist spatial practice and ideology. Ultimately, this article reflects on the legacy of Francoist space in Spain and how the filmic gaze has evolved in response.

An Evolving Inquiry of Monastic Spiritual Care for Aging Inmates

This investigation involved focus-group inquiry of the Oblates in Prison Program, a faith-based ministry founded on monastic principles in the Rule of St. Benedict. Data from a Benedictine Order monk and program coordinator, ordained prison minister, and lay ministry volunteer were collected. Participants were asked a series of questions regarding the spiritual care of aging prisoners. Responses were coded and cross-compared for thematic content. Of central thematic importance was implementation of a spiritual care model using traditional monastic rules for daily living. A second theme centered on purposeful rebuilding of self-renewal through stability and obedience. A final emergent theme encompassed institutional acceptance in the provision of religious sacraments, sacred texts, and artifacts. Results highlight the broader implications of providing spiritual care and outreach to aging prisoners. The role of restorative justice for successful delivery of faith-based spiritual care for improved rehabilitation of aging inmates will be further addressed.

Un collaborateur de la Revue bénédictine : Dom Ildephonse Schuster

Monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, in Rome, of which he was to become the Abbot from 1918 to 1929, then Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan from 1929 to 1954, Ildephonse Schuster (1880-1954), early manifested a taste for history and Christian archeology. He received advice and encouragement in particular from Fathers Germain Morin (1861-1946) and Ursmer Berlière (1861-1932), both monks of the abbey of Maredsous (Belgium) and renowned scholars, the first in patrology and the history of early Christianity, the second in the history of the Benedictine Order. Schuster regularly met them in Rome at the beginning of the twentieth century and upheld a correspondence with them for some forty years. Both monks always paid great attention to his research and to his person. In this context of intellectual and spiritual emulation, as well as at the instigation of his former fellow student, Beda Lebbe, another monk of Maredsous, the young Ildephonse Schuster published three articles in the Revue Bénédictine, successively in 1904, 1907 and 1909-1910. This article reports on those friendships and collaboration.

Il pulpito e il pavimento di San Liberatore alla Maiella: distruzione, alterazione e ricomposizione degli arredi liturgici

The Pulpit and the Floor of San Liberatore alla Maiella This paper has been inspired by the study of the Abruzzi liturgical furnishings and, in particular, by a fundamental work of Otto Lehmann-Brockhaus presented in 1944: Die Kanzeln der Abruzzen im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert. Our aim is to focus on the abbey church of San Liberatore alla Maiella, the once powerful and widely known Benedictine order, pivot of political control of Montecassino in Abruzzo. Its founding is unknown, but dates back to a time before the year 990, when the abbey was destroyed by an earthquake. We will pay particular attention to the reconstruction of the architectural development of the church – transformed into a cemetery from the municipality of Serramonacesca in the 19th century – and its medieval pulpit and floor, in particular on their conservation history and their decoration. Our focus, here, is to argue – on the basis of a full analysis of the available sources on the history and restorations of the abbey – that the pulpit is the result of an assemblage carried out between the years 1970 and 1971, and that the floor was made in two distinct interventions, carried out between the 11th and 13th centuries.

Sfântul Benedict de Nursia. Impactul vieții și regulilor sale asupra civilizației europene de astăzi

St. Benedict of Nursia was organizer of Western monasticism, born in 480 in Nursia – Ombria, Italy today and passed away in 547, at Monte – Casino near Rome. Influenced by the monastic rules of St. Basil the Great and spiritual conversations of St. John Cassian, St. Benedict organized Western monasticism, requiring a specific discipline and ascetic life. Rule monks, such work is called St. Benedict of Nursia is more a treatise on life than a regulation or rule. Ninth century Benedict of Aniane reformulating Rule monks of Western monasticism shifted to the sacred, to the detriment of practice or work and founded the Benedictine order. The fruit of this way of life was the birth monastery Cluny monastery, which was to play an important role in Western monastic life and papal history. Numerous Benedictine monasteries scattered around the world have played and still play an important role in the history and culture of the Church and beyond.

Zjawiska niecodzienne, klęski elementarne i przemarsze wojsk w Wielkopolsce w XVII i XVIII w. i ich wpływ na funkcjonowanie klasztoru benedyktynek w Poznaniu w świetle Kronik Benedyktynek Poznańskich

The Monastery in Poznań was founded in 1607 by Magdalena Mortęska – the reformer of the Benedictine Order. By analysing the monastic cornicles, the author wanted to show the influence of extra-ordinary events in Greater Poland and Poznan in 17th and 18th Century onlife of enclosed nuns. The article describes what changed when people visited the monastery, what life of nuns looked like during epidemics, floods and other disasters that took place in Greater Poland. The influence of wars and quartering foreign armies in the city of Poznan on life of nuns in the Benedictine Monastery was also included.

Dos cartórios da Ordem Beneditina ao Real Archivo da Torre do Tombo: o périplo de Frei Francisco de São Luís Saraiva

Este artigo aborda a veia bibliófila de Frei Francisco de São Luís Saraiva evidenciada desde o seu ingresso na Ordem Beneditina, com apenas 14 anos de idade, e o seu percurso pelas bibliotecas e arquivos da Ordem enquanto visitador e cartorário até à sua nomeação para Guarda-Mor do Real Arquivo da Torre do Tombo. Essa vivência, bem como seu o gosto pela investigação histórica, tendo por base os documentos dos arquivos monásticos, permitiu-lhe conhecer o estado em que se encontravam esses arquivos o que o levou a manifestar uma preocupação constante com as instalações, a conservação e o “arranjo” dos documentos.

Contribución del Padre Feijoo a la fábrica de la nueva iglesia del monasterio de San Julián de Samos (Lugo): un capítulo documentado de la historia de la arquitectura y de la edición de libros en España

La conclusión del monumental templo monasterial de San Julián de Samos (Lugo) en 1748 fue posible gracias a la cesión de los derechos de impresión y reimpresión y los beneficios de la venta de los seis primeros tomos del Theatro Crítico Universal (1726, 1728, 1729, 1730, 1733 y 1734) y de la Ilustración apologética (1729) que en 1734 el padre Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (1676-1764) hizo a la que había sido la casa de su noviciado y profesión religiosa (1690 y 1692). El dato era conocido de la erudición, pues ya dio noticias el padre fray Martín Sarmiento, amigo y corresponsal de Feijoo además de cronista de la orden benedictina, en un informe manuscrito de 1743 (publicado en 1879), y fray Eladio de Nóboa (1765) y, a partir de ellos, se ha venido repitiendo, aunque sin convicción. Publicamos ahora ese documento de 1734 y, a su vista y de la obra literaria del padre Feijoo, hacemos algunas observaciones sobre la fábrica barroca del monasterio de Samos.
 
 [gl] A conclusión do monumental templo mosteiral de San Xulián de Samos (Lugo) en 1748 foi posible grazas á cesión dos dereitos de impresión e reimpresión e os beneficios da venda dos seis primeiros tomos do Theatro Crítico Universal (1726, 1728, 1729, 1730, 1733 y 1734) e da Ilustración apologética (1729) que en 1734 o padre Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (1676-1764) fixo á que fora a casa do seu noviciado e profesión relixiosa (1690 y 1692). O dato era coñecido da erudición, pois xa dera noticias o padre frei Martín Sarmiento, amigo e correspondente de Feijoo, ademais de cronista da orden benedictina, nun informe manuscrito de 1743 (publicado en 1879), e frei Eladio de Nóboa (1765) e, a partir deles, veuse repetindo, aínda que sen convición. Publicamos agora ese documento de 1734 e, á súa vista e da obra literaria do padre Feijoo, facemos algunhas observacións sobre a fábrica barroca do mosteiro de Samos.

Review: Saint John's Abbey Church: Marcel Breuer and the Creation of a Modern Sacred Space, by Victoria M. Young

Victoria M. Young Saint John's Abbey Church: Marcel Breuer and the Creation of a Modern Sacred Space Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014, 216 pp., 17 color and 80 b/w illus. $34.95, ISBN 9780816676163 Marcel Breuer's Saint John's Abbey Church in Collegeville, Minnesota, is one of the few churches in the United States to have merited a previous monograph—Whitney Stoddard's Adventure in Architecture: Building the New St. John's , written several years before the church's dedication in 1961.1 That Stoddard, a medievalist, was so fascinated with this decidedly modernist landmark suggests much about the building's positioning at the time. Victoria M. Young's study of the church's history and its design now helps us to understand fully why it was so important to its contemporaries. Her own long relationship with the abbey (Young is a professor of architectural history at the nearby University of St. Thomas) shows in her sensitive descriptions of Breuer's clients, the monks, and her stress on the dynamic relationship between the two, which, she argues, produced a masterpiece neither could have been responsible for alone. She deftly balances architectural history and analysis with an examination of the theology and history of the liturgical movement, creating a multidimensional work that can be read with profit by religious as well as architectural historians. Young's first two chapters set Breuer's commissioning in the context of Benedictine monasticism, the twentieth-century liturgical movement, and midcentury modernist architecture. The Benedictine order, founded in the sixth century AD, has always been known for its innovative architecture and comprehensive community planning. A monastic complex includes a church, housing, spaces for recreation and prayer, and work buildings ranging from barns to schoolrooms. Saint John's is the largest Benedictine foundation in the United States, established (along …

A igreja do colégio beneditino de Nossa Senhora da Estrela de Lisboa: génese, destruição e recuperação/reinvenção de um património

A antiga igreja beneditina do colégio de Nossa Senhora da Estrela de Lisboa conheceu ao longo da sua história várias intervenções que lhe moldaram tanto a feição arquitectónica como a dos seus interiores. Reconstruída em inícios de setecentos, a sua história patrimonial é recheada de episódios fracturantes. Em finais do século XVIII, o espaço conventual é ocupado pelo exército. Nos anos trinta de 1900, os militares optam pela venda do espólio artístico da igreja, no entanto, o mesmo exército, em 1946, empreende um esforço de localização das peças originais com vista à reconstrução dos interiores do templo e da sua abertura ao culto. A antiga igreja da Estrelinha apresenta-se actualmente como um caso de estudo exemplar. As múltiplas acções dos agentes responsáveis pelo seu património testemunham, não só o gosto vigente em cada cronologia, mas essencialmente o entendimento do valor patrimonial dos objectos, alvo das diversas acções dos seus responsáveis a cada momento histórico.

Christian Saṃnyāsis and the Enduring Influence of Bede Griffiths in California

This article thematizes a spiritual movement of ascetic hermits in California, which is based on the religious practice of Bede Griffiths. These hermits took their religious vows in India as Christian saṃnyāsis, in the hands of Father Bede, and then returned to California to ignite a contemplative renewal in the Christian dispirited tradition. Some tried to integrate such Indian tradition in the Benedictine order, while others traced new paths.

Bernhard Pez: An Austrian Benedictine Scholar between Sacred Antiquarianism and New Practices of Scholarship

The article addresses the question of how to situate a Benedictine scholar of the early eighteenth century in relation to recent research on the intersecting goals of historical-critical scholarship and the search for confessional identities. The Benedictine Bernhard Pez (1683–1735) was among the first scholars in Austria to engage in the systematic collection and critical publication of medieval source texts. He has been long regarded as a pioneer of the historical-critical method though, like many contemporaries, he used it mainly for apologetic purposes, especially in favour of the Benedictine Order. What is interesting about Pez are his attempts to evade the institutional limitations in theology by highlighting the historical nature of church history and to search for Protestant allies in an anti-Roman struggle for a historical view of the antiquities of the ‘German’ church.

PŘEHLED BENEDIKTINSKÉHO DĚJEPISECTVÍ V ČESKÝCH ZEMÍCH

PŘEHLED BENEDIKTINSKÉHO DĚJEPISECTVÍ V ČESKÝCH ZEMÍCH

“Secundum rubricam Romanam”: Reform Liturgy of Subiaco-Melk / Benediktinska “melška reforma” in njene liturgične posledice

The “Melk Reform” refers to the revival of the Benedictine order in southern Germany and Austria which had Melk as its centre, and came about as a result of the Council of Constance (1414–1418). The reform statutes emphasize strict adherence to the rules of the order, monastic discipline and liturgical renovation. The “Melk Reform chant” represents a variant of the Roman Franciscan chant tradition.

Paideia as Metanoia: Transformative Insights from the Monastic Tradition

Silent men were observed about the country, or discovered in the forest, digging, clearing and building; and other silent men, not seen, were sitting in the cold cloister, tiring their eyes and keeping their attention on the stretch, while they painfully copied and recopied the manuscripts which they had saved. There was no one who contended or cried out, or drew attention to what was going on, but by degrees the woody swamp became a hermitage, a religious house, a farm, an abbey, a village, a seminary, a school of learning and a city. — John Henry Newman, The Mission of the Benedictine Order Among the many privileges of her posterity, Rome tends to enjoy a larger space on the metaphorical palate of cultural critics during perceived times of crisis. Narratives comparing her decline to contemporary conditions often bring along an homage to Benedict of Nursia, in many ways the founder of Western Christian monasticism. Newman’s image of “silent men” often rallies would-be cultural preservers toward nostalgic hibernation in response to some imminent and inevitable cataclysm. The trope has recently been taken up in reference to the plights of higher and secondary education. Thomas Benton’s op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education encourages us to “get medieval on education,” forsaking an academy marked by tenure-track cuts and diminishing humanities enrollment in favor of small institutions where faculty poverty is at least intentional. 1 In Septmeber 2015, the Archbishop of Canterbury instituted a “gap year” program of monastic living for high school graduates seeking shelter from a chaotic modern world. 2 For those not ready to retreat into the cloister, a new PBS documentary, The Rule, holds up a New Jersey Benedictine high school as a potential model for urban education. 3 In the last decade, particular elements of the Benedictine educational tradition have garnered interest outside the monastery. In an increasingly instrumental environment, intentionally nonpragmatic and nonpositivistic approaches hold an understandable appeal. Among philosophers of education, Angelo Caranfa, Kevin Gary, and Samuel Rocha have recently provided accounts of the potential educational value of both monastic silence and literary modalities. 4 In light of the 2015 Philosophy of Education Society conference theme, I would like to further this discussion by examining how principles of monastic learning might inform a poetic and transformative educational vision. As a particular appropriation of Platonic paideia, monastic education carries specific ontological, anthropological, and linguistic considerations. When enacted in practice, these positions yield a literacy model that can be described as metanoia, or “turning toward.” In this model, readers “turn toward” and encounter an Other in the form of textual expression and are transformed through what monastics considered an organic “digestion” of the Other’s mind. 5 This essay seeks to contribute to the current literature by advancing metanoia as a notional framework and by drawing on the work of Ivan Illich as well as Raymond Studzinski’s recent phenomenological analysis of monastic lectio. After proposing a narrative of continuity between Platonic