Of Benedict and His Monks

Happy Saint Benedict’s Day! Today is the principal feast of the founder of western monasticism: the author of the Holy Rule, and a great saint.

Over the course of the last decade and more, new monastic institutions with many young monks and sisters are beginning to flourish throughout the world.

For the last few years, I’ve made it my habit to provide a brief survey of some of the notable monasteries and their efforts to create what has been called “a (new) civilization of love, rooted in contemplation and alive with the holiness of God” (Bishop Edward Slattery).

Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey Founded in 1999 by twelve American, Canadian, and French monks from Notre-Dame de Fontgombault, they now number more than 60 monks and novices. After several years’ hiatus, work has resumed on their great Romanesque-style monastery in the Ozark foothills of Oklahoma. The construction of the Church apse and the first phase of the bell tower is now almost halfway complete. All the concrete has been poured, and now the masons are busy building the circular chapels and will soon raise the transepts of the Church to their definitive height. The project should be completed in the late fall, and enlarge the upper Church for our monastic liturgical ceremonies.

I prayed with one of their rosaries ever since my first Camino.

The Monks of Norcia It cheers me that since the year 2000, Saint Benedict’s own home town of Norcia is once more home to a Benedictine abbey. These monks celebrate the sacraments in utroque usu, that is, according to both the Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. They are kind enough to post audio clips of their daily Mass, Lauds, and Vespers on their blog. Their chant album “Benedicta” is a worldwide best-seller and has been on the charts for 47 weeks and counting. And I look forward to sampling their beer at some point! What’s not to like about brewmonks? Birra Nursia is now available in the USA. These men are finding the quiet spaces in the world to listen for the whispering voice of God (1 Kings 19:11-13).

Silverstream Priory A group of American ex-patriot monks have founded Silverstream Priory in Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland in 2012. Their primary mission is the liturgy and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament1, though I’m fairly well impressed by the beauty and dignity of the printed materials they produce. The community is not large, but that seems to be part of the plan. We do not aspire to become a grand abbey. Our aim is to grow to the size of a large family, that is between twenty and thirty members. A diversity of talents and aptitudes are needed: manual, intellectual, artistic, and technological.

Mount Angel Abbey

Changing tack a bit, Mount Angel Abbey is an older monastery in Oregon. This past spring saw the election and blessing of Abbot Jeremy Driscoll, O.S.B., as its 12th abbot.

It has recently enjoyed something of a renaissance:

The number of postulants, novices, and junior professed monks preparing for a life in the monastery is one of the largest in many years at the Abbey.

The number of fully professed monks in the Abbey community is 44, with a few serving in parishes and others no longer active due to illness or age. The twenty-one monks in various stages of formation represent over 40 percent of the total community.

“This is a new chapter in our history – a new abbot, new monks, all in a new century.”
(Fr. Odo Recker, O.S.B., Vocations Director)

Mount Angel is the site of one of the more important seminaries in the United States. They recently celebrated the seminary’s 127th Commencement Exercises.

Of course, there are thousands of monasteries all over the world, and many of them are doing great works in obedience to the motto Ora et Labora.

Who else should I know about? Who did I miss?

For those seeking more information on the great Saint and his monks, please take a look at some of the older posts on this blog:

21 March 2016: A Day in the Life of a Monastery (great video called “Quaerere Deum” on the life of the monks of Norcia)

11 July 2015: Prefer Nothing to the Love of Christ (my favourite readings from the Holy Rule)

21 March 2015: Of Benedict and His Order (update on various Benedictine monasteries and such)

11 July 2014: On Community (a rather lengthy meditation)

21 March 2014: Listen, O my Son

11 July 2013: The Man Who Saved Western Civilization

11 July 2012: (Pope) Benedict on (Saint) Benedict

21 March 2012: Listen

11 July 2011: Towards a New Cluny (essay on liturgical reform)

21 March 2011: Saint Benedict, Abba Poeman, and Amenemope (short thoughts on silence)

1. “Silverstream Priory in Stamullen, County Meath is a monastery of Benedictine Monks dedicated entirely to divine worship in the contemplative life.”