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http://www.hermitary.com/solitude/desert.html

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"Aristotle and John Donne were wrong. Some of us might be social animals, but there have always been those of us who are islands. A richer or more complete account would be hard to imagine. Everything but the floor plans."
- BILL PORTER, author, Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits and Finding Them Gone: Visiting China's Poets of the Past.

"A comprehensive and authoritative survey of the hermit tradition from the ancient Greeks to contemporary exemplars of social withdrawal."
- DAVID VINCENT, professor emeritus of social history, Open University, author, The Book of Solitude and Privacy: A Short History.

"A wonderful, sympathetic and informative book from a lifelong researcher of hermit life and lore. I loved reading it."
- ANDREAS MATHIAS, professor of philosophy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, author, The Simpler Life: Epicurus, Hermits and the Dao; editor, Daily Philosophy online magazine.

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Hermitary - the hermit, hermits, eremitism, solitude, silence, and simplicity

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"Aristotle and John Donne were wrong. Some of us might be social animals, but there have always been those of us who are islands. A richer or more complete account would be hard to imagine. Everything but the floor plans."

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Desert Mothers

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Who were the desert mothers?

These women lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, C.E. Their way of life came into being after Christianity had become legal and Christians were no longer under persecution. Some had deep questions about an expression of the faith that was taking on the trappings of the Roman Empire. The "red martyrdom" (sacrificing one's life rather than recanting faith in the resurrected Lord) was no longer possible. So the practice of the "white martyrdom" began to appear - women and men going to the deserts of Egypt and the Holy Land, and seeking to live out the Great Commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27, Dt. 6:5, Lev. 19:18) As scholar Roberta Bondi has pointed out, the desert mothers and fathers are remarkable for their daily practice of seeking to "love as God loves."

What do we know about these women?

For one thing, we know there were a lot of them. One historian of the times tells us that there were twice as many women as men in the deserts. Another scholar said that there were so many Christians who sought to live this life in the desert that "the desert became a city." There were even accounts of "tourists" going out to the deserts to observe the ammas and abbas.

We know the names of four of these women whose sayings have been preserved: Amma Matrona, Amma Sarah, Amma Syncletica and Amma Theodora. And we know a little about their lives. We know, for example, that Amma Theodora was what we might call a spiritual director to bishops and other men in public position. We know that she was clear in her teaching and strong in her rebukes. We know that Amma Syncletica and her sister sought the life in the desert after their parents died.

Yet surrounding what we know is a vast silence. We have very little record of the thousands of women who lived this life of simplicity, silence and stillness. We have stories of others, such as Mary of Egypt (one good reference for that is Harlots of the Desert by Benedicta Ward).

What does "amma" mean?

The word means "mother." It came to refer to those women who were spiritual mothers to many. They were wise teachers who were sought out for guidance in living the Christian life.

The book is structured around nine concise sayings from the desert mothers. How did we receive these?

The desert tradition was an oral tradition which was then later written down. It was often the case that someone seeking to live a more faithful life would go to an amma (or an abba) and seek guidance with a decision, or a state of confusion, or the life of prayer. The sayings are pretty terse, and sometimes seem completely odd to us. We are inevitably reading them out of context; it helps to imagine two women sitting together, one asking the guidance of the other.

We have many more sayings from the desert fathers. In fact, we have a whole book worth of sayings ( The Sayings of the Desert Fathers). The sayings of those four known ammas are included in that collection. Thanks to the work of scholars like Roberta Bondi and Mary Forman, we are beginning to see the ammas in their own light, and to reclaim women's history in this period of the life of the church.

What do these desert mothers have to offer to us today?

I tell students that when we study the desert mothers and fathers, we have to remember that we are looking at a galaxy far, far away. I think it may be beyond the capacity of our imaginations to conceive of their time and culture. That said, it is also true that their sayings speak to deep human yearnings and to perennial human difficulties. We still judge one another constantly, thereby anointing ourselves as if we were God. We still stumble in the practice of living faithfully, and we need support. We still have difficulty being honest with ourselves and with God. The ammas know intimately these movements of the heart and soul, and they encourage us, they confront us and they guide us.

I also find their insistence on practicing silence, solitude and stillness a kind of medicine for our over-heated, frenetic culture. Many women today are trying to balance work, family, volunteering, and participation in a faith community. Our lives are harried, and we have no sense of being able to rest in the divine silence, the Source from which we come and to which we will return. When I am teaching this material, I always begin and end the class with simply sitting in silence. Inevitably, participants remark that it is like getting a drink when you are really thirsty, so thirsty you had forgotten what water tasted like.

The practices that the desert offers us are down to earth, simple ways of allowing ourselves to be reminded that we are always living in the Love which creates, redeems and sustains us. The ammas draw us away from the assumption that technique is what matters. They remind us that this is a way of life.

Do you mean we should all go to the desert and become solitaries?

Certainly not. I mean that the human dimension of life in the desert is common to all of us. We are made for relationship with God and one another - one of the gifts of the Great Commandment is that it calls us to remember that basic truth. Knowing that in the abstract is one thing. Living it out in the nitty gritty of daily rounds is another. The ammas help us to find ways to gently pay attention to God's presence with us in all places and through all things. And they teach us to grow in the awareness that we are each unique, remarkable parts of a vast, vital, interconnected cosmos. We are reminded that we ARE one - that is reality from God's perspective. Our task is to align our lives and our loves in such a way that we participate in that reality. Most of us think we have to make the oneness. The desert knows the fallacy of that perception.

What have you personally learned from the ammas?

First, I have learned to experiment. When these women decided to leave their lives - some of them were learned, some were fairly wealthy, some were prostitutes - they made a choice to try to create something new with one another and with God. There were a variety of models. Some were solitaries. Some were living in community. Some were solitaries who lived in huts, yet came together regularly for worship and meals. Initially, there was no single monolithic pattern. At midlife, I know that many women are trying to find patterns for living that are congruent with their experience and their faith. And sometimes we need examples from women's history to help us find what fits.

Second, the ammas have taught me to set aside time for quiet. There are so many pressures that lead us to be fragmented. The tradition does not deny the pressures. The ammas tells us that God is present even in those daily struggles. I can remember that more readily if I have taken time for quiet.

Third, the ammas take me back to basics. We live in a time in which so much polarization has happened in both the national political arena, and within the church. The ammas invite us to look beyond all the divisive fussing - not to deny it, but to see it as surface reality. They invite us to gaze more deeply, especially in the most tensive of circumstances.

And lastly, the ammas tell me that from the beginnings of the life of the Church, women have been initiators of new patterns and teachings, opening the way for knowing the wholeness that God offers in Christ. When I am reading the stories and sayings of the desert ammas, I am struck by their utter confidence that no matter what, this world belongs to God, is loved by God, and that each person, each creature, each aspect of the created order, is an expression (some would say a theophany, a showing) of God's love.

This Q&A was graciously provided to SpiritualityandPractice.com by Morehouse Publishing.

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Who were the desert mothers? These women lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, C.E. Their way of life came into being after Christianity had become legal and Christians were no longer under persecution. Some had deep questions about an expression of the faith that was taking on the trappings of the Roman Empire.

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The Desert Fathers - Bringing Mysticism to Today's Church

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"Listen carefully, my son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart." -RB Prologue

With this introduction to his Rule, St. Benedict calls the brother to the basic stance of his vocation: a monk is someone who inclines his ear to the Divine Voice, who opens his eyes to the Light of Christ.

The word "monk" derives from the Greek monos, meaning "alone." The monk or nun's single-hearted aim is to seek union with God. In order to fulfill this, the monastic stands alone, apart from the world. In his Rule, St. Benedict, an heir to both the early eremitical desert tradition of Egypt and the cenobitic life initiated by later monastic founders, combined the virtues of solitude-of silence, contemplation, and the singular search for God-with a life of fraternal charity lived in community with others who share the same ardent search for God. Always, our teacher and Lord is Christ; a monk or nun can thus be defined as someone whose "life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3:3), in community with others, according to a rule, under the guidance of an abbot or abbess.

St. Benedict's provided a plan for monastic life and prayer that, fifteen centuries later, remains the most widely used in the world. Because the Rule is rooted in the Gospel and is characterized by a pervading kindness, clarity, and common sense and adaptability, it has remained fruitful in all ages and all lands. Both practical and spiritual, it covers such varied topics as the celebration of the liturgy, silence, humility, the measure of food and drink, reverence at prayer, the election of the abbot, and the reception of guests.

St. Benedict handing the Rule to his monks

Benedictine Vows

The three vows of every Benedictine professes are stability, conversio, and obedience.

Stability means remaining in the particular monastic community in which one has made solemn profession. On one level, this suggests rejecting the aimless, headlong rush from one distraction to another that characterizes so much of modern life; it means accepting who one is-a finite creature, loved by an infinite God; it means remaining on stable course in the monastic life, belonging by vow to the particular monastic "family" which one joins through solemn profession.

Conversio, or conversatione morum, translated as "conversion of manners" or "conversion of life," is a vow to be a nun: to take on the "mores"-Latin for "customs, values and behavior," the "ways, conduct and character"-of a nun as lived in one's particular monastery. The conversion from living one's established personal way into a communal way is not easy in our culture of self-directed individualism. Pope Francis often speaks about this trend in our modern society. ¹ Conversio never ends; each monk and nun begins again each dawn, offering his or her life up afresh to Our Lord.

Obedience means, above all, obedience to the abbot, who, St. Benedict tells us "is Christ's representative, called by His name: 'You have received the spirit of the adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father'" (Rm 8:15). Obedience for St. Benedict is a "bonum"-a "good"-that is extended also to one's fellow community members. In imitation and union with Christ, who was "obedient even unto death" (Phil. 2:8), mature obedience enables the monastic to center his or her life in God rather than self. This total gift of self to God in love is an act of faith and trust in him is a "Yes" and an abandonment to his will, with the assurance that he will not fail us.

The Rule also establishes three activities that comprise day-to-day monastic life: prayer, work, and lectio divina or sacred reading.

The earliest extant copy of the Rule

Prayer

Every monk and nun engages in private prayer, an intimate conversation with God, a loving expression of praise, adoration, thanksgiving, and petition. However, the central form of prayer in Benedictine monasticism is not private but corporate: the Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours. St. Benedict calls this time of prayer the opus Dei or "work of God"-and truly it is the main work of the monk and nun in tribute to God, and, conversely, it is God's own work, the way in which He continues to speak to the world through the words of Holy Scripture that comprise each Hour. Of the opus Dei, Benedict wrote in his Rule "We believe that the divine presence is everywhere.... But beyond the least doubt we should believe this to be especially true when we celebrate the Divine Office."

Work

St. Benedict explains in his Rule that "idleness is the enemy of the soul." He therefore counsels "specified periods for manual labor" for all monks and nuns. Monastic work can include such activities as agriculture, arts and crafts, intellectual work and greeting of guests, as well as the day-to-day tasks of any household. Whatever the activity, the work becomes itself a form of prayer, a way of offering one's energies to God for the completion of his Kingdom.

Lectio Divina

Every monk and nun devotes a part of each day to sacred reading of Scripture and the early Fathers of the Church, in order to hear the voice of God as expressed in revealed texts. This ancient practice of prayerful reading, in which the inspired words are pondered over, committed to memory, opens the monk or nun to contemplative prayer.

Palm Sunday procession

After St. Benedict

St. Benedict died c. 547 A.D. In the centuries since, his Rule spread throughout the world and, in time, inspired other monastic movements, most notably the Cistercians and Trappists. But despite development and diversity, the Benedictine way remains fundamentally unchanged. As one monk has said, "a sixth-century monk should feel at home in a twenty-first century monastery."

¹ Evangelii Gaudium
LINKS

Benedictine Spirituality:

FURTHER READING
The Holy Rule:

RB1980: The Rule Of St. Benedict in English, Timothy Fry, OSB, Translator (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1981)

Benedict's Rule: A Translation and Commentary, Terrence Kardong, OSB, (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996)

Esther De Waal, A Life Giving Way: A Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1995)

Benedictine Spirituality:

Columba Marmion, OSB, Christ the Ideal of the Monk, (St. Louis: Herder, 1926)

Esther De Waal, Living With Contradiction: Reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict, (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989)

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"Listen carefully, my son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart." -RB Prologue With this introduction to his Rule, St. Benedict calls the brother to the basic stance of his vocation: a monk is someone who inclines his ear to the Divine Voice, who opens his eyes to the Light of Christ.

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The Charism of Carmel embraces a healthy balance of solitude and community-living.

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Pope Francis has appointed the Most Reverend Dom Erik Varden OCSO, Abbot of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire, England (UK), as the new Bishop-Prelate of Trondheim, Norway. See details here.

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Pope Francis has appointed the Most Reverend Dom Erik Varden OCSO, Abbot of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire, England (UK), as the new Bishop-Prelate of Trondheim, Norway. See details here.

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Christian History | Learn the History of Christianity & the Church

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I t is difficult to fathom today why the desert fathers did what they did, or why the church, East and West, was so taken by their example for the next millennium. It requires a great deal research and historical imagination to see what the desert monks were getting out of their ascetic discipline.

Belden Lane, a Presbyterian professor of theology at St. Louis University, is one who has done the research and has the historical imagination. His The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Mountain and Desert Spirituality (Oxford, 1998) is a brilliant analysis of how geography has played a vital role in the history of Western spirituality. Christian History asked Professor Lane to help us grasp the attraction of desert asceticism throughout Christian History.

Why did the desert fathers choose to work out their spirituality in the desert?

They sought God, first of all, and they knew that God was most easily found in a place without distractions. Second, the desert was also a marvelous laboratory for dealing with the self, which was their other major spiritual project.

How do you handle the ego and its anxiousness, its constant need for support? You walk into the desert, which doesn't care one bit about who you are or what you bring to it. That kind of terrain offers a marvelous antidote to the problem of the ego, the false self.

In the Bible and Greco-Roman culture, the desert is not so much a place of spiritual growth but a place of evil and temptation. Didn't the monks believe that?

They did, and that is another reason they went into the wilderness. They found precedents in the life of John the Baptist (you won't find a desert monastery without an icon of John the Baptist) and especially in Jesus. Throughout his life, Jesus withdrew into the desert to pray. He began his ministry in the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days. Likewise, Antony started his ministry by going into the desert to empty himself and face temptation there.

The desert is a place where you expect the temptations of hunger, of power, of beauty-the things the desert lacks are the things you find yourself wanting desperately. The monks looked on demons and temptation as aides to their spiritual lives. But they were not overwhelmed by trials and temptations. Instead, they found God in the midst of temptation and struggle.

Today, many go into the wilderness to "get back to nature." Was that part of the monks' motivation?

No. It's so easy for us to romanticize their motivation today. Abba Macarius in Egypt was said to be a lover of the desert, but this was only after spending years there. For the monks, the desert was primarily a training ground.

How did the desert as such shape these monks' spiritual lives?

The desert asks two questions: What do you learn to ignore? And what do you learn to love? In other words, how do you let go, and what do you hold onto? Those are the basic dimensions of the spiritual journey that the desert monks went through as they embraced the desert.

Let me paraphrase one of the best illustrations of this, found in Sayings of the Desert Fathers: A young man, a spiritual groupie of sorts, comes to Scetis, west of the Nile, to seek out the great monk Abba Macarius. He asks Abba Macarius, "How do I get to be a holy man? I want to be a holy man. And I want to be one tomorrow."

Macarius smiles and says, "Spend the day tomorrow over at the cemetery. I want you to abuse the dead for all you're worth. Throw sticks and stones at them, curse at them, call them names-anything you can think of. Spend the whole day doing nothing but that."

The young man must have thought the great monk was crazy, but he spent the next day doing everything he was told. When he returned, Abba Macarius asked him, "What did the dead people say out there today?"

The young man responded that they didn't say a thing. They were dead. Macarius said, "Isn't that interesting? I want you to go back tomorrow, and this time spend the day saying everything nice about these people. Call them righteous men and women, compliment them, say everything wonderful you can imagine."

"The desert is a perfect
place to let go of the
need for recognition"
-Belden Lane

So the young man went back the next day, did as he was told, and returned to Macarius. The monk asked him what the dead people said this time.

"Well, they didn't answer a word again," replied the brother.

"Ah, they must indeed be holy people," said Macarius. "You insulted them, and they did not reply. You praised them, and they did not speak. Go and do likewise, my friend, taking no account of either the scorn of men and women or their praises. And you too will be a holy man."

It's a wonderful story that asks two questions: What do you ignore? The answer is the scorn and praise of others. The other question is more indirect-What do you love? That is, since you are not going to be motivated by what others think, what are you going to give yourself to fully?

But how is it possible to learn love when you're solitary?

The monks learned that the desert teaches you how to live apart from others, how to live without compulsively needing them to give you worth or make you feel loved. In the desert, you learn how to live with yourself. Only then are you capable of giving love-sacrificial love that accepts or needs nothing in return.

Let me give an example from our lives, because even when we live in the city, we can have this type of desert experience. There's a point when you realize you have to let go of what you love most if you ever hope to really keep it. And only when you reach that point (e.g., in your career or your marriage or your deepest relationships with others), when you move beyond a compulsive need for them. Only then is it going to be possible really to love for the first time.

It's incredibly painful letting go. But once you do that, there is an incredible sense of the desert, as Isaiah says, blossoming like a rose. Suddenly in the place of abandonment, in the place where you let go of everything you knew, you realize that what you could not hold God gives back. And love is born there in the very place where you had lost everything.

Now as the monks learned, the desert makes no promises. If you're going out there to suddenly become a deeply loving person, if like the young man you want to become holy, there are no guarantees. It is only at profound risk-letting go, ignoring yourself and the distractions of the world-that love and compassion might occur. But as many mystics, East and West, have discovered, "The experience of emptiness engenders compassion."

In a lot of the desert father stories, it feels as if the monks practiced ascetic disciplines to earn salvation.

You could interpret it that way on a surface level. But I see them living out what medieval mystic Meister Eckhart once said, that the spiritual life isn't so much a matter of addition as subtraction.

Though we Protestants talk about justification by faith (versus by works), we often act as if the key to the spiritual life is adding all the active virtues, doing great things for God, sharing the gospel with others, and the like. Eckhart said, no, it's a matter of subtraction. How much can you let go of? It's not a matter of anxiously having to prove yourself to your teachers, to your parents, or to God so as to finally make yourself acceptable. It's a matter of letting go of all those compulsive needs for approval and recognizing that only after you abandon those compulsions will you be able to accept God's utterly free grace that comes in the gospel, in Jesus.

The desert is a perfect place to let go of the need for recognition. I love the image of the canyon cliff that Gregory of Nyssa used back in the fourth century. Being on top of that cliff, in a place of beauty and uneasiness-that's where you discover the majesty, greatness, and glory of God. You look at that canyon cliff, think about it being there thousands, maybe millions of years, and you ask yourself, how did that canyon cliff change on the day your personal world fell apart?

What's an example of that?

For me, that was the day my father was tragically killed when I was 13, and I thought the whole world had fallen apart. What did that canyon cliff do that day? Or how did it change on the day of your divorce, or the day you admitted your dependence on alcohol, or the day you finally shared a hidden shame with someone else?

And you find, sitting there watching that canyon wall, that it didn't change at all. In the midst of your world falling apart, something didn't change. It was waiting, staying there as if for you, in the same way that God does not change. That stone cliff, a metaphor of God, invites you to pour out all the grief and anguish you can muster, then accepts it all without rebuke, receives it all right there in the desert.

Something amazing happens at that point. When you become silent enough and empty enough, pouring out your needs to God in that desert place, you are able for the first time to hear what you had never heard before, and that's a single word whispered by Jesus: love. It's one of those words that you can't hear until you are utterly silent and utterly empty.

Speaking about what the most devout desert monks had experienced, John Climacus wrote, "Lucky the man who longs for God as a smitten lover does for his beloved."

To me, this is what attracted and held monks in the desert, and why it still attracts some souls to this day.

For more on Belden Lane, see his bio at:

Faculty of American Studies Department at SLU
http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/amers/faculty.html

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

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Antony and the Desert Fathers: Christian History Interview - Discovering the Desert Paradox

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I t is difficult to fathom today why the desert fathers did what they did, or why the church, East and West, was so taken by their example for the next millennium. It requires a great deal research and historical imagination to see what the desert monks were getting out of their ascetic discipline.

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This lecture is intended to complete a series of four on the Jesuit founders whose jubilees are being celebrated this year. At Fordham we have had in 2006 one lecture on St. Ignatius, one on Peter Faber, one on Francis Xavier and now, to complete the series, a lecture on the Ignatian charism today. The notion of the Ignatian charism requires some explanation. A charism is a gift of grace, conferred not for one's personal sanctification but for the benefit of others. St. Paul has a famous list of charisms in the 12th chapter of the First Letter to the Corinthians. They include the gifts of prophecy, speech, miracle-working and the interpretation of tongues. If these are charisms bestowed on some members of the church, what charisms, if any, are given to St. Ignatius of Loyola? Who are the beneficiaries? Are these charisms still bestowed today? And if so, who are the recipients?

In what follows I shall speak principally of the gifts that St. Ignatius possessed in an eminent way and that he expected to be applied and handed down with God's help in the Society he founded.

The life of St. Ignatius was remarkably focused. Beginning with his long convalescence at Loyola after being wounded at Pamplona in 1521, he was led by God through a series of stages culminating in the foundation and organization of the Society of Jesus. Although the Society, when first officially established in 1540, had only 10 members, including the inner circle of the three whose anniversaries we celebrate this year, all 10 recognized without a shadow of doubt that the true founder of the Society of Jesus, under God, was none other than Ignatius. He was endowed with an extraordinary gift-a charism, one may say-of leadership. His primary achievement was the founding of a new religious order in many ways quite unlike any order that had previously existed. It was an order of men vowed to live in the midst of the world with their eyes continually focused on God, on Jesus Christ and on the needs of the church.

These three foci of the Ignatian vision are compactly expressed in the bull of Pope Paul III in 1540, confirmed by a similar bull of Julius III in 1550. Both these documents quoted in full the Formula of the Institute composed by Ignatius himself. The Formula begins with these lapidary words: "Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the name of Jesus, and to serve the Lord alone and the Church his Spouse, under the Roman pontiff, the vicar of Christ on earth, should, after a vow of perpetual chastity, poverty, and obedience, keep the following in mind."

Focusing on God

The first feature of the Jesuit in this description is to be a soldier of God. Anyone who enters the Society, says the Formula, must "first of all keep before his eyes God and then the nature of this Institute which he has embraced and which is, so to speak, a pathway to God." According to his custom Ignatius here distinguishes between the means and the end. The end for which the Jesuit order exists is the greater glory of God. In the constitutions he composed for the Society, Ignatius repeats the formula "ad maiorem Dei gloriam" in the same or similar words 376 times. Because God is God, he deserves all the praise and service we can give him. The use of the comparative "greater" ( maiorem) is significant. It signifies the desire to excel, to seek ever more ( magis). What we have done and are presently doing is never enough.

Following Jesus Christ

The life of the Jesuit according to the Institute is in the second place centered on Jesus Christ, who is, in the phrase of St. Ignatius, the way that leads to life. The Formula of the Institute specifies that the Society is to be designated by the name of Jesus. St. Ignatius never thought of himself as the head of the Jesuits. He wanted only to be a companion in the following of Jesus, the true head of the Society.

St. Ignatius received a remarkable grace while praying at the chapel of La Storta, just outside Rome, in October 1537, together with Peter Faber and Diego Laínez. He was, as he declares, "very specially visited by the Lord," whom he saw carrying his cross on his shoulder in the presence of his Father, who said to Ignatius, "I want you to serve us." From that moment forth, St. Ignatius never doubted that the Father had placed him with the Son; he insisted adamantely that the new congregation ought to be called the Society of Jesus.

Already in the meditation on the Two Standards in the Spiritual Exercises, written some years earlier, Ignatius had the retreatant ask for the grace to be received under the standard of Christ. And so in the Formula of the Institute he has those entering the Society express the desire to fight under the banner of the cross. This is a commitment to struggle ceaselessly against great odds and to fight bravely, not heeding the wounds, imitating the example of Christ who embraced the cross to accomplish our redemption.

Serving the Church

The third component is the ecclesial. Totally and unequivocally a man of the church, Ignatius writes in the Formula of the Institute that the prospective Jesuit must be resolved to serve "the Lord alone and the Church his spouse." Here we may detect an echo of Ignatius's famous "Rules for Thinking with the Church," at the conclusion of the Spiritual Exercises, where he refuses to admit any discrepancy between the service of Christ and the church. "I must be convinced," he writes, "that in Christ our Lord, the bridegroom, and in His spouse the Church, only one Spirit holds sway, which governs and rules for the salvation of souls." The hierarchical and Roman Church, he says, is "the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother."

St. Ignatius' allegiance is not to some abstract idea of the church, but to the church as it concretely exists on earth, with the Roman pontiff at its summit. The popes of St. Ignatius' day may not have been the holiest and the wisest of men, but he looked upon them with the eyes of faith and saw in each of them the vicar of Christ for the teaching and government of the universal church. As early as 1534, when the original seven companions took their vows at Montmartre, they had the idea of placing themselves at the disposal of the pope, asking him to assign them to the missions he considered most pressing. After the papal approval of the Institute in 1540, Ignatius established himself at Rome, where he spent the rest of his life in order to be accessible to the pope.

As yet I have stated the goal of the Society of Jesus in only the most general terms-the glory of God, the service of Christ and availability to the pope. Ignatius still had to specify what kind of service his order would be prepared to offer. This too is mentioned in the Formula of the Institute. In the sentence following the one I have quoted, St. Ignatius writes: Whoever wishes to enter should know that he is asking to be "a member of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defense and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine." And then he mentions various means whereby these goals are to be achieved: "public preaching, other ministries of the word of God, spiritual exercises, education in Christianity, hearing confessions, and administering other sacraments." And then in the next sentence the Formula speaks of certain works of charity: reconciling the estranged, ministering to persons in prisons and hospitals and similar services.

Ten Shining Features of the Society of Jesus

A number of attempts have been made in recent years to gather up certain principles that shine through the writings of St. Ignatius and are envisaged as permanent features of the Society he founded. Any such list presupposes, of course, the common elements of all religious orders in the Catholic Church, including the faithful observance of the usual vows of religion: poverty, chastity and obedience. The following 10 features may serve as a summary of what is more specific to the spirit of St. Ignatius.

1. Dedication to the glory of God, the "ever greater God," whom we can never praise and serve enough. This gives the Jesuit a kind of holy restlessness, a ceaseless effort to do better, to achieve the more or, in Latin, the magis. Ignatius may be said to have been a God-intoxicated man in the sense that he made "the greater glory of God" the supreme norm of every action, great or small.

2. Personal love for Jesus Christ and a desire to be counted among his close companions. Repeatedly in the Exercises Jesuits pray to know Christ more clearly, to love him more dearly and to follow him more nearly. Preaching in the towns of Italy, the first companions deliberately imitated the style of life of the disciples whom Jesus had sent forth to evangelize the towns of Galilee.

3. To labor with, in and for the church, thinking at all times with the church in obedience to its pastors. Throughout the Constitutions, Ignatius insists on the teaching of the doctrine that is "safer and more approved," so that students may learn the "more solid and safe doctrine."

4. Availability. To be at the disposal of the church, available to labor in any place, for the sake of the greater and more universal good. Regarding the Society as the spiritual militia of the pope, St. Ignatius sees the whole world, so to speak, as his field of operations. Inspired by this cosmic vision, he admits no divisions based on national frontiers and ethnic ties.

5. Mutual union. Jesuits are to see themselves as parts of a body bound together by a communion of minds and hearts. In the Constitutions St. Ignatius asserted that the Society could not attain its ends unless its members were united by deep affection among themselves and with the head. Many authors quote in this connection the term used by Ignatius of his first companions: "friends in the Lord."

6. Preference for spiritual and priestly ministries. The Jesuits are a priestly order, all of whose professed members must be ordained, although the cooperation of spiritual and lay coadjutors is highly valued. In the choice of ministries, Ignatius writes, "spiritual goods ought to be preferred to bodily," since they are more conducive to the "ultimate and supernatural end."

7. Discernment. Ignatius was a master of the practical life and the art of decision-making. He distinguished carefully between ends and means, choosing the means best suited to achieve the end in view. In the use of means he consistently applied the principle: "tantum...quantum," meaning "as much as helps," but not more. In this connection he teaches the discipline of indifference in the sense of detachment from anything that is not to be sought for its own sake.

8. Adaptability. Ignatius always paid close attention to the times, places and persons with which he was dealing. He took care to frame general laws in such a way as to allow for flexibility in application.

9. Respect for human and natural capacities. Although Ignatius relied primarily on spiritual means, such as divine grace, prayer and sacramental ministry, he took account of natural abilities, learning, culture and manners as gifts to be used for the service and glory of God. For this reason he showed a keen interest in education.

10. An original synthesis of the active and the contemplative life. Jerome Nadal (1507-80) spoke of the Jesuit practice "of seeking a perfection in our prayer and spiritual exercises in order to help our neighbor, and by means of that help of neighbor acquiring yet more perfection in prayer, in order to help our neighbor even more." According to Nadal, it is a special grace of the whole Society to be contemplative not only in moments of withdrawal but also in the midst of action, thus "seeking God in all things."

Wisdom From Recent Popes

In view of my assignment to speak of the Ignatian charism today, I shall shift immediately to the 20th century and to the years since the Second Vatican Council. The popes, as the highest superiors of all Jesuits, have given us wise directives regarding the application of our Jesuit charism to the needs of the day. They have addressed each of the four general congregations held since 1965. On the theory that the charism of the Society is correlative with its mission, I shall particularly examine the injunctions of recent popes.

Addressing the 31st General Congregation on May 7, 1966, Pope Paul VI congratulated the Society for being "the legion ever faithful to the task of protecting the Catholic faith and the Apostolic See." He took the occasion to charge the Jesuits with a new mission: to make a "stout, united stand against atheism," which was rapidly spreading at the time, "frequently masquerading as cultural, scientific, or social progress."

In an address to the second session of the same congregation on Nov. 16, 1966, Paul VI raised questions about whether some Jesuits were accepting naturalistic norms for their apostolate and weakening in that traditional loyalty to the Holy See that had been so dear to St. Ignatius. In its "Decree on the Mission of the Society Today," General Congregation 31 accepted the mandate to confront atheism and offered the Society completely to the church under the direction of the pope.

In his address to the 32nd General Congregation on Dec. 3, 1974, Pope Paul VI referred to the "vocation and charism proper to Jesuits," transmitted by an unbroken tradition, which includes conformity to the will of God and that of the church. In a valuable analysis, he reminded Jesuits of their fourfold vocation: to be religious, to be apostolic, to be priests and to be united with the bishop of Rome. He admonished them not to be seduced by the dazzling perspective of worldly humanism and the pursuit of novelty for its own sake. In subsequent correspondence he renewed his earlier warnings that the Society of Jesus should retain its religious and priestly character and avoid ways of action more appropriate to secular institutes and lay movements. The role of ordained Jesuits, he said, should be clearly distinct from the role of laity.

In response, the 32nd General Congregation strongly reaffirmed the Society's reverence and loyalty to the Holy See and to the magisterium of the church. It underlined the sacerdotal (or priestly) character of the Society, while recognizing the value of the contribution of lay coadjutors.

Pope John Paul II, on Sept. 2, 1983, delivered a homily to the 33rd General Congregation. The Ignatian spirit, he said, is a special charism that makes the Society of Jesus a privileged instrument of the church's action at all levels. After repeating the mandate of Paul VI to resist atheism, he spoke of the danger of confusing the tasks proper to priests with those of the laity. "Intimate knowledge, strong love, and closer following of the Lord," he said, "are the soul of your vocation."

John Paul II, in his allocution to General Congregation 34 on Jan. 5, 1995, spoke of the singular charism of fidelity to the successor of Peter, which marks out the Society of Jesus as being "totally and without reservation of the Church, in the Church, and for the Church." The charism of the Society, he said, should make Jesuits witnesses to the primacy of God and his will, which points to the primacy of spirituality and prayer. He asked that Jesuits, seeking to follow the leadership of St. Francis Xavier in missionary evangelization, be in the forefront of the new evangelization, promoting a deep interior relationship with Jesus Christ, the first evangelizer. In their universities, His Holiness said, Jesuits should teach clear, solid, organic knowledge of Catholic doctrine. They should be very attentive not to confuse their students by questionable teachings, at variance with the church's doctrine on faith and morals.

Benedict XVI, in a speech of April 22, 2006, celebrating the current jubilee year, exhorted the Society to continue in its tradition of imparting solid training in philosophy and theology as a basis for dialogue with modern culture. The Society of Jesus, he said, enjoys an extraordinary legacy in the holiness of St. Ignatius, the missionary zeal of Francis Xavier and the apostolate of Peter Faber among leaders of the Reformation. In many of his addresses this pope has aligned himself with Paul VI and John Paul II by insisting that the primary and indispensable task of the priest is to be an expert in the spiritual life and a witness to the truth of revelation. The promotion of justice in society, he believes, is primarily a responsibility of the laity.

Challenges: Ignatius' Day and Our Day

The challenges of our day are certainly different from those of the 16th century; but they are, I believe, analogous, and for this reason, I would contend, the Society is well positioned to deal with them. Its charism is by no means outdated. The 16th century, like our own, was a time of rapid and radical cultural change. That time witnessed the rise of anthropocentric humanism, the birth of the secular state and the autonomy of the social and physical sciences. Jesuits who have studied their own tradition have stellar examples of scholars who equipped themselves to enter into these new fields and show the coherence between the new learning and the Catholic heritage of faith. We have only to think of the economic and legal philosophy of Luis de Molina (1535-1600) and Juan de Lugo (1583-1660), the astronomical achievements of Christopher Clavius (1537-1612), the atomic theories of Roger Boscovich (1711-87), and so many other great Jesuit thinkers of the past. They spoke incisively to the problems of their day, building bridges between faith and reason, between theology and science. In our day some Jesuits are venturing into questions concerning cosmic and human origins and into complex problems of biochemistry and genetic engineering, all of which are so vital for the future of faith and morals.

The 16th century had early experiences of globalization. It was the great age of discovery. Jesuits, eager to evangelize the whole world, were leaders in the missionary apostolate to the Americas, to parts of Africa, to India and the Far East. They not only sent missionaries but also trained them to present the Gospel in a manner suited to the cultures of various peoples. Francis Xavier (1506-22) is the most famous, but he was by no means alone. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Robert de Nobili (1577-1656) are only two of dozens of outstanding missionaries who preached the Gospel in an inculturated form, inspired by the principles of St. Ignatius.

Proclamation in an accommodated style is not less needed today than in the past. The fields are white for the harvest, but the laborers are few. Who can better fill the urgent demand for priests to proclaim the Gospel and administer the sacraments in continents like Africa, where conversions to Christianity are so numerous and so rapid? Jesuits in the young churches, if they are well trained, can take up the task left to them by foreign missionaries.

The age of Ignatius was no stranger to the clash of civilizations. The Muslim world and the Christian world were engaged in incessant warfare. Jews were being mistreated and persecuted in many countries. Jesuit missionaries encountered fierce opposition from religious leaders in practically every country they evangelized. In the course of time, they became leaders in interreligious dialogue. Missionaries learned to respect the good things in native cultures while sifting out the chaff. That is still a task of great urgency today. Jesuits have in their tradition rich resources for learning how and how not to deal with non-Christian religions. Bloody conflict and useless provocation must be avoided, while, on the other hand, Christians must frankly oppose elements in every religion and every culture that promote superstition or injustice.

The 16th century saw the division of Western Christianity between the Protestant nations of northern Europe and the Catholic nations of the south. The Jesuits, few though they were in number, accomplished great things by their energy and heroism. Peter Faber (1506-46) did extraordinary work to stem the tide of heresy in Germany and the Low Countries. He inspired Peter Canisius (1521-97) and a host of others to go forward in his footsteps. One wonders what the Jesuits of those days would have done if they were alive today to see the defection of so many Latino Catholics from the church in the United States and in Central and South America. The need is evident; the principles are clear; but there are all too few talented candidates to take up the task.

Centralization of the church was imperative in the days of St. Ignatius. He himself clearly perceived the need for the papacy as the headquarters of the universal church. He saw that Catholicism must be universal and that nationalism and ethnocentrism could have no place in it. He founded a Society made up of Spaniards, Portuguese, Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Englishmen and many others who worked together in an undivided apostolate under the direction of a single general superior. One of the great blessings of the Society of Jesus, today as in the past, is its worldwide horizon. Jesuits are "friends in the Lord" undivided by distinctions of nationality, ethnic origin or social class.

A great weakness of the church in the Europe of St. Ignatius' day was ignorance of the faith. Many priests were barely literate, and the laity in some countries did not know the basic elements of the Creed. Rather than complain and denounce, Ignatius preferred to build. Popular education, he perceived, was on the rise. Taking advantage of the new desire for learning, Ignatius quickly set about founding schools, colleges and seminaries. The educational efforts of the Jesuits in the past count among their greatest services to the church. These educational institutions, I believe, are still among the major blessings that the Society of Jesus offers to the church and to the culture at large.

Jesuits in the past have entered deeply into the intellectual apostolate. Many were leaders in practical sciences such as political theory. They can look back on a great tradition extending from Francisco Suárez in the 16th century to John Courtney Murray in the 20th. Nothing suggests that this type of research has lost its relevance. The church needs loyal and devoted scholars who will carry this type of reflection further, in view of new and developing situations. Here again the Society has much to contribute if sufficient numbers will hear the call.

In the 16th century, the Society of Jesus was at the vanguard of the church in dealing with the problems posed by the Protestant Reformation, by the new science and by access to new continents that had been beyond the awareness of Europeans in the past. Today the church is confronted with mounting secularism, with new advances in technology, and growing globalization and an attending clash of cultures. If anyone should ask whether these developments render the Ignatian charisms obsolete, I would reply with an emphatic no.

The Society can be abreast of the times if it adheres to its original purpose and ideals. The term "Jesuit" is often misunderstood. Not to mention enemies for whom Jesuit is a term of opprobrium, friends of the Society sometimes identify the term with independence of thought and corporate pride, both of which St. Ignatius deplored. Others reduce the Jesuit trademark to a matter of educational techniques, such as the personal care of students, concern for the whole person, rigor in thought and eloquence in expression. These qualities are estimable and have a basis in the teaching of St. Ignatius. But they omit any consideration of the fact that the Society of Jesus is an order of vowed religious in the Catholic Church. They are bound by special allegiance to the pope, the bishop of Rome. And above all, it needs to be mentioned that the Society of Jesus is primarily about a person: Jesus, the redeemer of the world. If the Society were to lose its special devotion to the Lord (which, I firmly trust, will never happen) it would indeed be obsolete. It would be like salt that had lost its savor.

Evangelizing the World

The greatest need of the Society of Jesus, I believe, is to be able to project a clearer vision of its purpose. Its members are engaged in such diverse activities that its unity is obscured. In this respect the recent popes have rendered great assistance. Paul VI helpfully reminded Jesuits that they are a religious order, not a secular institute; that they are a priestly order, not a lay association; that they are apostolic, not monastic; and that they are bound to obedience to the pope, not wholly self-directed.

Pope John Paul II, in directing Jesuits to engage in the new evangelization, identified a focus that perfectly matches the founding idea of the Society. Ignatius was adamant in insisting that it be named for Jesus, its true head. The Spiritual Exercises are centered on the Gospels. Evangelization is exactly what the first Jesuits did as they conducted missions in the towns of Italy. They lived lives of evangelical poverty. Evangelization was the sum and substance of what St. Francis Xavier accomplished in his arduous missionary journeys. And evangelization is at the heart of all Jesuit apostolates in teaching, in research, in spirituality and in the social apostolate. Evangelization, moreover, is what the world most sorely needs today. The figure of Jesus Christ in the Gospels has not lost its attraction. Who should be better qualified to present that figure today than members of the Society that bears his name?

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This lecture is intended to complete a series of four on the Jesuit founders whose jubilees are being celebrated this year. At Fordham we have had in 2006 one lecture on St. Ignatius, one on Peter Faber, one on Francis Xavier and now, to complete the series, a lecture on the Ignatian charism today.

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Welcome to the Parish of St. Ignatius of Loyola

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As a Jesuit parish community, animated by the spirit of St. Ignatius, we welcome all to share in the joy of the Gospel and to come to "know, love and serve" God and one another. Read More...

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Ignatian Spirituality Finding God in All Things

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There are a number of outstanding resources devoted to Ignatian spirituality. Sacred Space is a popular prayer site run by the Irish Jesuits, and Jesuitprayer.org was created by the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus to provide daily online prayers and facilitate prayer requests.

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francis franciscan sister sisters little falls minnesota community serve gospel peace donate clare women prayer music mission earth franciscan sisters little falls francis music music center  jesus christ roman catholic  francis music center
st francis

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The Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota, is a community of Roman Catholic women religious who follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ, walking in the footsteps of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi.

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A series of presentations based on materials written by Brian Grogan, SJ, of the Irish Jesuits

Welcome to The Ignatian Way, a series of online presentations that introduce the main ideas of Ignatian spirituality. Each one is an 6-10 minute video. When you finish the series, you should have a good idea of what Ignatian spirituality is all about, and how it can help you to grow closer to God.

Series Introduction Video

The Ignatian Way Presentations

#1 What Is Ignatian Prayer?
#2 Ignatian Spirituality: An Overview
#3 Finding God in All Things
#4 The Spiritual Exercises
#5 The Examen
#6 What Is Discernment?
#7 Decision Making
#8 Men and Women for Others

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The Ignatian Way Presentations - IgnatianSpirituality.com

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Welcome to The Ignatian Way, a series of online presentations that introduce the main ideas of Ignatian spirituality. Each one is an 6-10 minute video. When you finish the series, you should have a good idea of what Ignatian spirituality is all about, and how it can help you to grow closer to God.

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We are looking for a part-time development director. Click here for details.

CONNECTION, COMMUNITY, COMPASSIONATE LISTENING: The Franciscan Spirituality Center is a sacred place of peace and hospitality for those seeking spiritual renewal, personal and professional growth, healing, transformation and deeper self-awareness. We are dedicated to supporting anyone in their search for God, meaning and wholeness. We invite you to explore our many offerings: individual and group compassionate listening, daylong programs, guided and preached retreats, mind-body-spirit classes, opportunities for creative expression, meeting room space for organizations, hermitage stays and an innovative training program for spiritual directors. No visit is complete without a stop in our fabulous Sophia Bookstore or well-stocked lending library. Staff is also available for off-site workshops, presentations and programs. All are welcome!
Click here for a virtual tour of the FSC.

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We are looking for a part-time development director. Click here for details. CONNECTION, COMMUNITY, COMPASSIONATE LISTENING: The Franciscan Spirituality Center is a sacred place of peace and hospitality for those seeking spiritual renewal, personal and professional growth, healing, transformation and deeper self-awareness. We are dedicated to supporting anyone in their search for God, meaning and wholeness.

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In order to foster and facilitate relationship with God, through prayer and contemplation, Carmelite spirituality proposes certain means, both personal and communal, namely meditation on the word of God, liturgy, silence and solitude, and asceticism. The Rule of St.

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Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Patron of the Order of Carmelites! The Sacred Scriptures speak of the beauty of Mount Carmel in Palestine where the Prophet Elijah defended the faith

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The designation "Desert Fathers and Mothers" refers to sources of ascetic literature from late antiquity that are associated with monasticism principally in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Arabia.

Monasticism, which sought physical removal from the inhabited world, quickly identified with the uninhabited desert as a refuge from temptation and as a hostile environment in which to train the body and the mind toward the single goal of serving God.

The literature that captured the central ideas of those who had renounced and withdrawn from the world consists of practical advice for monks, primarily solitaries, including those who might not have access to an experienced teacher.

The essential example of this literature consists of the Apophthegmata Patrum, or The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. This collection circulated in the East and West in three different editions and was translated into a number of languages before the Middle Ages. One edition is attributed to Poemen of Egypt, as are several of the sayings in the collection.

It is possible that sayings attributed to Poemen by his disciples were the kernel around which the rest of the collection grew. Other Desert Fathers include Anthony, Pachomius, Ammun, and Bishoi, all of Egypt, and Hilarion and Abba Isaiah of Palestine.

Sarah and Syncletica are two of the names of several Desert Mothers whose sayings have been preserved. In the version of the Sayings that is arranged alphabetically by the name of the father or mother, there are some 134 names. Those fathers and mothers who can be dated are all from the third and fourth centuries c.e., and reflect preclassical Christian monasticism.

The literature consists of short and direct statements on different topics. Topics include vigilance, self-control, humility, fasting, and prayer. The role of the the spiritual father (abba) or mother (amma) was essential to the perspective of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The abba or amma was not a discussion partner or counsel but a source of wisdom, whose advice the novice was to put into practice.

Rather than theological speculation, the abba's or amma's advice is the epitome of simplicity and common sense. This advice was always specific to the individual and, hence, was based on the abba's or amma's knowledge of his or her novice.

Each monk or nun must experience his or her own path of spiritual progress. The Desert Fathers and Mothers as the source of this wisdom were thus held not as strict models to be imitated but rather pioneers from whose mistakes and discoveries later generations could profit.

This literature was intended to complement the rule of a monastery and church legislation designed to ensure a stable institution, regulating the life of the monastic community so that each of its members could proceed on their individual Christ-centered spiritual path.

The practical approach to questions taken by these authorities was reflected in every aspect of the monk's or nun's work, the goal of which was to find God. The Desert Fathers and Mothers are presented as champions of asceticism.

Asceticism entailed fasting and the control of the passions as well as the struggle with demons both within and without, but the end of this work was to become humble, quiet, and vigilant in order to serve God and neighbor, to listen for and to the Word of God, and to trust in God alone.

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The designation "Desert Fathers and Mothers" refers to sources of ascetic literature from late antiquity that are associated with monasticism principally in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Arabia.

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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Benedictine-Rule

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Other articles where Benedictine Rule is discussed: Gregory, in his only reference to the Rule, described it as clear in language and outstanding in its discretion. Benedict had begun his monastic life as a hermit, but he had come to see the difficulties and spiritual dangers of a...

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The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict ( Latin: Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits. They were founded in 529 by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule.

Despite being called an order, the Benedictines do not operate under a single hierarchy but are instead organized as a collection of autonomous monasteries. The order is represented internationally by the Benedictine Confederation, an organization set up in 1893 to represent the order's shared interests. They do not have a superior general or motherhouse with universal jurisdiction but elect an Abbot Primate to represent themselves to the Vatican and to the world.

The monastery at Subiaco in Italy, established by Benedict of Nursia c. 529, was the first of the dozen monasteries he founded. He later founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino. There is no evidence, however, that he intended to found an order and the Rule of Saint Benedict presupposes the autonomy of each community. When Monte Cassino was sacked by the Lombards about the year 580, the monks fled to Rome, and it seems probable that this constituted an important factor in the diffusion of a knowledge of Benedictine monasticism.

Copies of Benedict's Rule survived; around 594 Pope Gregory I spoke favorably of it. The Rule is subsequently found in some monasteries in southern Gaul along with other rules used by abbots. Gregory of Tours says that at Ainay Abbey, in the sixth century, the monks "followed the rules of Basil, Cassian, Caesarius, and other fathers, taking and using whatever seemed proper to the conditions of time and place", and doubtless the same liberty was taken with the Benedictine Rule when it reached them. In Gaul and Switzerland, it gradually supplemented the much stricter Irish or Celtic Rule introduced by Columbanus and others. In many monasteries it eventually entirely displaced the earlier codes.

By the ninth century, however, the Benedictine had become the standard form of monastic life throughout the whole of Western Europe, excepting Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, where the Celtic observance still prevailed for another century or two. Largely through the work of Benedict of Aniane, it became the rule of choice for monasteries throughout the Carolingian empire.

Monastic scriptoria flourished from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Sacred Scripture was always at the heart of every monastic scriptorium. As a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole active work. An anonymous writer of the ninth or tenth century speaks of six hours a day as the usual task of a scribe, which would absorb almost all the time available for active work in the day of a medieval monk.

One of the earliest reforms of Benedictine practice was that initiated in 980 by Romuald, who founded the Camaldolese community. The Cistercians branched off from the Benedictines in 1098; they are often called the "White monks".

The dominance of the Benedictine monastic way of life began to decline towards the end of the twelfth century, which saw the rise of the Franciscans and Dominicans. Benedictines took a fourth vow of "stability", which professed loyalty to a particular foundation. Not being bound by location, the mendicants were better able to respond to an increasingly "urban" environment. This decline was further exacerbated by the practice of appointing a commendatory abbot, a lay person, appointed by a noble to oversee and to protect the goods of the monastery. Often, however, this resulted in the appropriation of the assets of monasteries at the expense of the community which they were intended to support.

The English Benedictine Congregation is the oldest of the nineteen Benedictine congregations. Through the influence of Wilfrid, Benedict Biscop, and Dunstan, the Benedictine Rule spread rapidly, and in the North it was adopted in most of the monasteries that had been founded by the Celtic missionaries from Iona. Many of the episcopal sees of England were founded and governed by the Benedictines, and no fewer than nine of the old cathedrals were served by the black monks of the priories attached to them. Monasteries served as hospitals and places of refuge for the weak and homeless. The monks studied the healing properties of plants and minerals to alleviate the sufferings of the sick.

During the English Reformation, all monasteries were dissolved and their lands confiscated by the Crown, forcing those who wished to continue in the monastic life to flee into exile on the Continent. During the 19th century English members of these communities were able to return to England.

St. Mildred's Priory, on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, was built in 1027 on the site of an abbey founded in 670 by the daughter of the first Christian King of Kent. Currently the priory is home to a community of Benedictine nuns. Five of the most notable English abbeys are the Basilica of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as Downside Abbey, The Abbey of St Edmund, King and Martyr commonly known as Douai Abbey in Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berkshire, Ealing Abbey in Ealing, West London, and Worth Abbey. Prinknash Abbey, used by Henry VIII as a hunting lodge, was officially returned to the Benedictines four hundred years later, in 1928. During the next few years, so-called Prinknash Park was used as a home until it was returned to the order.

As of 2015, the English Congregation consists of three abbeys of nuns and ten abbeys of monks. Members of the congregation are found in England, Wales, the United States of America, Peru and Zimbabwe.

Monastic libraries in England

The forty-eighth Rule of Saint Benedict prescribes extensive and habitual "holy reading" for the brethren. Three primary types of reading were done by the monks during this time. Monks would read privately during their personal time, as well as publicly during services and at mealtimes. In addition to these three mentioned in the Rule, monks would also read in the infirmary. Monasteries were thriving centers of education, with monks and nuns actively encouraged to learn and pray according to the Benedictine Rule. Section 38 states that 'these brothers' meals should usually be accompanied by reading, and that they were to eat and drink in silence while one read out loud.

Benedictine monks were not allowed worldly possessions, thus necessitating the preservation and collection of sacred texts in monastic libraries for communal use. For the sake of convenience, the books in the monastery were housed in a few different places, namely the sacristy, which contained books for the choir and other liturgical books, the rectory, which housed books for public reading such as sermons and lives of the saints, and the library, which contained the largest collection of books and was typically in the cloister.

The first record of a monastic library in England is in Canterbury. To assist with Augustine of Canterbury's English mission, Pope Gregory the Great gave him nine books which included the Gregorian Bible in two volumes, the Psalter of Augustine, two copies of the Gospels, two martyrologies, an Exposition of the Gospels and Epistles, and a Psalter. Theodore of Tarsus brought Greek books to Canterbury more than seventy years later, when he founded a school for the study of Greek.

Monasteries were among the institutions of the Catholic Church swept away during the French Revolution. Monasteries were again allowed to form in the 19th century under the Bourbon Restoration. Later that century, under the Third French Republic, laws were enacted preventing religious teaching. The original intent was to allow secular schools. Thus in 1880 and 1882, Benedictine teaching monks were effectively exiled; this was not completed until 1901.

Saint Blaise Abbey in the Black Forest of Baden-Württemberg is believed to have been founded around the latter part of the tenth century. Between 1070 and 1073 there seem to have been contacts between St. Blaise and the Cluniac Abbey of Fruttuaria in Italy, which led to St. Blaise following the Fruttuarian reforms. The Empress Agnes was a patron of Fruttuaria, and retired there in 1065 before moving to Rome. The Empress was instrumental in introducing Fruttuaria's Benedictine customs, as practiced at Cluny, to Saint Blaise Abbey in Baden-Württemberg. Other houses either reformed by, or founded as priories of, St. Blasien were: Muri Abbey (1082), Ochsenhausen Abbey (1093), Göttweig Abbey (1094), Stein am Rhein Abbey (before 1123) and Prüm Abbey (1132). It also had significant influence on the abbeys of Alpirsbach (1099), Ettenheimmünster (1124) and Sulzburg (ca. 1125), and the priories of Weitenau (now part of Steinen, ca. 1100), Bürgel (before 1130) and Sitzenkirch (ca. 1130).

Kloster Rheinau was a Benedictine monastery in Rheinau in the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland, founded in about 778. The abbey of Our Lady of the Angels was founded in 1120.

The first Benedictine to live in the United States was Pierre-Joseph Didier. He came to the United States in 1790 from Paris and served in the Ohio and St. Louis areas until his death. The first actual Benedictine monastery founded was Saint Vincent Archabbey, located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1832 by Boniface Wimmer, a German monk, who sought to serve German immigrants in America. In 1856, Wimmer started to lay the foundations for St. John's Abbey in Minnesota. In 1876, Herman Wolfe, of Saint Vincent Archabbey established Belmont Abbey in North Carolina. By the time of his death in 1887, Wimmer had sent Benedictine monks to Kansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Illinois, and Colorado.

Wimmer also asked for Benedictine sisters to be sent to America by St. Walburg Convent in Eichstätt, Bavaria. In 1852, Sister Benedicta Riepp and two other sisters founded St. Marys, Pennsylvania. Soon they would send sisters to Michigan, New Jersey, and Minnesota.

By 1854, Swiss monks began to arrive and founded St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana, and they soon spread to Arkansas and Louisiana. They were soon followed by Swiss sisters.

There are now over 100 Benedictine houses across America. Most Benedictine houses are part of one of four large Congregations: American-Cassinese, Swiss-American, St. Scholastica, and St. Benedict. The congregations mostly are made up of monasteries that share the same lineage. For instance the American-Cassinese congregation included the 22 monasteries that descended from Boniface Wimmer.

The sense of community was a defining characteristic of the order since the beginning. Section 17 in chapter 58 of the Rule of Saint Benedict states the solemn promise candidates for reception into a Benedictine community are required to make: a promise of stability (i.e. to remain in the same community), conversatio morum (an idiomatic Latin phrase suggesting "conversion of manners"; see below) and obedience to the community's superior. This solemn commitment tends to be referred to as the "Benedictine vow" and is the Benedictine antecedent and equivalent of the evangelical counsels professed by candidates for reception into a religious order.

Much scholarship over the last fifty years has been dedicated to the translation and interpretation of " conversatio morum". The older translation "conversion of life" has generally been replaced with phrases such as "[conversion to] a monastic manner of life", drawing from the Vulgate's use of conversatio as a translation of "citizenship" or "homeland" in Philippians 3:20. Some scholars have claimed that the vow formula of the Rule is best translated as "to live in this place as a monk, in obedience to its rule and abbot."

Benedictine abbots and abbesses have full jurisdiction of their abbey and thus absolute authority over the monks or nuns who are resident. This authority includes the power to assign duties, to decide which books may or may not be read, to regulate comings and goings, and to punish and to excommunicate, in the sense of an enforced isolation from the monastic community.

A tight communal timetable - the horarium - is meant to ensure that the time given by God is not wasted but used in God's service, whether for prayer, work, meals, spiritual reading or sleep. The order's motto Ora et Labora ("pray and work") may be said to summarize its way of life.

Although Benedictines do not take a vow of silence, hours of strict silence are set, and at other times silence is maintained as much as is practically possible. Social conversations tend to be limited to communal recreation times. But such details, like the many other details of the daily routine of a Benedictine house that the Rule of Saint Benedict leaves to the discretion of the superior, are set out in its 'customary'. A ' customary' is the code adopted by a particular Benedictine house, adapting the Rule to local conditions.

In the Roman Catholic Church, according to the norms of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, a Benedictine abbey is a " religious institute" and its members are therefore members of the consecrated life. While Canon Law 588 §1 explains that Benedictine monks are "neither clerical nor lay", they can, however, be ordained.

Some monasteries adopt a more active ministry in living the monastic life, running schools or parishes; others are more focused on contemplation, with more of an emphasis on prayer and work within the confines of the cloister.

Benedictines' rules contained ritual purification, and inspired by Benedict of Nursia encouragement for the practice of therapeutic bathing; Benedictine monks played a role in the development and promotion of spas.

Benedictine monasticism is fundamentally different from other Western religious orders insofar as its individual communities are not part of a religious order with "Generalates" and "Superiors General". Each Benedictine house is independent and governed by an abbot.

In modern times, the various groups of autonomous houses (national, reform, etc.) have formed themselves loosely into congregations (for example, Cassinese, English, Solesmes, Subiaco, Camaldolese, Sylvestrines). These, in turn, are represented in the Benedictine Confederation that came into existence through Pope Leo XIII's Apostolic Brief " Summum semper" on 12 July 1893. Additionally, Pope Leo established the office of Abbot Primate as the abbot elected to represent this Confederation to the Vatican and to the world. The headquarters for the Benedictine Confederation and the Abbot Primate is the Primatial Abbey of Sant'Anselmo built by Pope Leo XIII and located in Rome, Italy.

The Rule of Saint Benedict is also used by a number of religious orders that began as reforms of the Benedictine tradition such as the Cistercians and Trappists. These groups are separate congregations and not members of the Benedictine Confederation.

Although Benedictines are traditionally Catholic, there are also some latter-day communities that follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. For example, of an estimated 2,400 celibate Anglican religious (1,080 men and 1,320 women) in the Anglican Communion as a whole, some have adopted the Rule of Benedict. Likewise, such communites can be found in Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutheran Church.

Scholars, historians, and spiritual writers

Members of the Congregation of Saint Maur, a prerevolutionary French congregation of Benedictines known for their scholarship:

Benedictine Oblates endeavor to embrace the spirit of the Benedictine vow in their own life in the world. Oblates are affiliated with a particular monastery.

1. ^ Alston, Cyprian (1907). "Benedictine Order" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

2. ^ Oliver OSB, Richard . "A Brief History of the Benedictine Order", OSB.org

3. ^

4. ^ Huddleston, Gilbert Roger (1912). "Scriptorium" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

5. ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Butler, Edward Cuthbert (1911). "Camaldulians". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 79-80.

6. ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Butler, Edward Cuthbert (1911). "Cistercians". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 393-395.

7. ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ott, Michael (1908). "Commendatory Abbot". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

8. ^ Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press, USA. p. 514

9. ^ Dom Bruno Hicks OSB (2009). "The Benedictines". Archived from the original on 5 November 2017.

10. ^ Colin Battell, OSB (2 December 2006). "Spirituality on the beach". The Tablet. pp. 18-19. The late Cardinal Basil Hume was Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey before being appointed Archbishop of Westminster.

11. ^ Martin, Christopher (2007). A Glimpse of Heaven: Catholic Churches in England and Wales. London: English Heritage. Examines the abbeys rebuilt after 1850 (by benefactors among the Catholic aristocracy and recusant squirearchy), mainly Benedictine but including a Cistercian Abbey at Mount St. Bernard (by Pugin) and a Carthusian Charterhouse in Sussex. There is a review of book by Richard Lethbridge "Monuments to Catholic confidence," The Tablet 10 February 2007, 27.

12. ^ Mian Ridge (12 November 2005). "Prinknash monks downsize". The Tablet. p. 34.

13. ^ Rees, Daniel (2000). "Anglican Monasticism". In Johnston, William (ed.). Encyclopedia of Monasticism. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn Publisher. p. 29. ISBN 1-57958-090-4.

14. ^ Hillaby, Joe (1994-1996). "The ritual-child-murder accusation: its dissemination and Harold of Gloucester". Jewish Historical Studies. 34: 69-109. JSTOR 29779954.

15. ^ Kaur, Nirmal (2005). History of Education. Mittal Publications. p. 44. ISBN 81-7099-984-7.

16. ^ Wormald, Francis; Wright, C.E. (1958). The English Library before 1700. London: The Athlone Press. p. 15 - via University of London.

17. ^

18. ^ "History I". st-benoit-du-lac.com. Archived from the original on 30 March 2009.

19. ^ Chadwick, Owen (1998). A History of the Popes, 1830-1914. Clarendon Press. pp. 495-. ISBN 978-0-19-826922-9.

20. ^ Wootton and Fishbourne. Ryde.shalfleet.net (4 August 2013). Retrieved on 7 September 2013.

21. ^ RGM 2005 OCSO. Citeaux.net (28 February 1947). Retrieved on 7 September 2013.

22. ^ Robinson, I. S., Henry IV of Germany 1056-1106, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 126 ISBN 9780521545907

23. ^ Clark, James Midgley. The Abbey of St. Gall as a Centre of Literature & Art, Chapter XII, CUP Archive, 1926, 1926

24. ^ ""History of Belmont Abbey", Belmont Abbey, North Carolina". Archived from the original on 16 April 2018.

25. ^ St Benedict (1981). RB 1980: the rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with notes. Translated by Fry, Timothy. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press. pp. 136-141. ISBN 0-8146-1211-3. OL 4255653M.

26. ^ "Customary: Mount Michael Abbey" (PDF). 1 September 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2016.

27. ^ Hembry, Phyllis (1990). The English Spa, 1560-1815: A Social History. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. ISBN 9780838633915.

28. ^ Bradley, Ian (2012). Water: A Spiritual History. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781441167675.

29. ^ "St Benedict & The Order | Benedictine Monks".

Dom Columba Marmion, Christ the Ideal of the Monk - Spiritual Conferences on the Monastic and Religious Life (Engl. edition London 1926, trsl. from the French by a nun of Tyburn Convent).

Mariano Dell'Omo, Storia del monachesimo occidentale dal medioevo all'età contemporanea. Il carisma di san Benedetto tra VI e XX secolo. Jaca Book, Milano 2011. ISBN 978-88-16-30493-2

"Abbey: Benedictine" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 12-14.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict ( Latin: Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits.

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The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Saint Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis.