The Order of Saint Benedict

Saint Benedict

Shortly after the western Roman Empire ended in AD 476 with the capture, forced abdication, and death of the teen-aged Emperor Romulus, another Italian teenager was about to give birth to a different sort of “realm” – a spiritual one.

A youngster named Benedict, born in the city of Nursia in Umbria around AD 480, was sent to Rome for a classical education. He found little in that chaotic place to nurture his growing hunger to know God more intimately, for, in addition to the Empire’s recent ruin, even the Church was divided with various men claiming to be the legitimate Pope.

Benedict shook the dust of Rome off his sandals and headed, like many other seekers of God, into a wilderness place to seek God’s will. Three years of prayerful solitude in a rough cave at Subiaco, southeast of Rome, under the wise guidance of a spiritual father prepared him for his call. The boy had become a hermit.

God’s call often grows and unfolds in our lives, and not always as we would anticipate. Discovered by local shepherds in that desert place, the young hermit interrupted his solitude to answer their request that he teach them the basics of the Christian faith. The hermit had become a teacher.

Other seekers soon flocked to Benedict, asking him to teach them not merely Christian doctrine, but how to live out their Christian lives well. Again, Benedict responded to their request as though it were God’s own voice.

He left his beloved cave and solitude to establish twelve small communities of men wishing to share his life, not as solitary hermits, but as monks living together under his direction and guidance. The shy hermit had himself become a spiritual father (an “Abba” or Abbot).

From that cave, like a spiritual womb, Benedict’s spiritual family grew and spread. First, when Benedict and several of his disciples left Subiaco to establish a single, large community on the mountainous heights overlooking the main Roman highway between Rome and Naples – the famous Abbey of Montecassino.

From Subiaco and Montecassino, his monastic family or “Order” flourished and grew under his spiritual wisdom, by now collected and written down in the “Rule (meaning a way of life) of Saint Benedict.” Benedict’s sons and daughters took his Rule wherever they went and soon established monastic communities through Europe. Under Emperor Charlemagne, that same “Rule” became the mandatory “way of life” of most religious communities in Europe.

“And the rest is history,” as the saying goes. Those monasteries became great centers of learning as the monks and nuns rescued, preserved, and copied manuscripts from Greek, Roman, and early medieval times. Their monasteries engaged in the education of the local populations, especially those young men and women joining their communities. From that ancient wisdom and knowledge, the monks and nuns practiced healing arts, and engaged in the reclamation and cultivation of swampy or barren lands and forests.

They left their monasteries as missionaries and evangelized populations that had never heard the Good News of Jesus. They founded new monasteries rooted among those peoples and there, once more, taught, promoted art, music, architecture, and the like.

From Europe, the Benedictines eventually spread to every continent – even to the United States of America in 1846, and in 1856 to these verdant farmlands, sparkling lakes, and lush woodlands of central Minnesota. Here the seed that the young Benedict planted long ago in faraway Italy took root and flourished richly, producing what was for a long while the two largest Benedictine men’s and women’s monasteries in the world.

Both the Abbey of Saint John the Baptist and the Monastery of Saint Benedict flourish still, thank God. Smaller perhaps, but no less vital they continue their lives of prayer, study, work, education, publishing, pastoral ministry, outreach to local multicultural communities, and missionary service around the world.

We welcome you as Christ himself to our website and invite you to become more familiar with the Saint John’s Abbey community and the apostolates we serve “that God may be glorified in all things.”

The Rule of Saint Benedict

The Rule of Saint Benedict remains at the center of the Order of Saint Benedict, envisioning a permanent, autonomous community, seeking God under the guidance of an abbot. Following the guidance of the Rule, the monks make common prayer, known as the liturgy of the hours, the heart of every day, plus a daily celebration of the Eucharist. The love thus generated by preferring nothing whatever to Christ is expressed and shared in generous hospitality and creative accomplishment.

The Benedictine Monastic Vows

The key elements of the Rule are expressed in the vows we profess as monks. First, we promise stability in this community, meaning that we promise to cast our lot with these people, in this place, doing what they do.

Second, we promise conversion according to a monastic manner of life, which translates just two Latin words, conversatio morum. They mean something like "getting on with being a Christian." In a monastery, this requires simplicity of life and communal ownership of property, as well as living one's sexuality appropriately. For monks, that means celibate chastity. It also includes the other practices that the monastic tradition has shown to be needed for spiritual growth: gathering for common prayer several times a day, including a celebration of the Eucharist; reading and praying over the Bible, a practice we call lectio divina, translated as "sacred reading;" joining with one another at table to share food, edifying reading, and conversation; working to serve the church and to provide material support for our community and its various projects.

Third, we promise obedience. Obedience flows in many directions in a Benedictine monastery, for "obedience" literally means "listening," paying attention to the varied ways that Christ calls us into a deeper relationship with him and each other. As Benedictines, we obey – we pay attention to – our Abbot, the principal teacher in our monastery. We obey each other, for there is always something to learn from the example of our brothers in the community, and from the men and women we meet daily in our work. Ultimately, obedience means being accountable to someone other than ourselves – not just to God, but to the flesh and blood people we live with every day. In them, too, we meet Christ.

Commitment – living as a Christian – attention and being accountable: Saint Benedict's common sense speaks to many who live other forms of Christian life. As a starting point, think about how each of those Benedictine themes is expressed in your own life, and where you see a need for growth. With the Lord's help, and the support of others, may you grow deeper in union with Christ.

The American-Cassinese Congregation

Unlike most other Catholic religious congregations, each Benedictine monastery is autonomous, but the community is grouped juridically into a Congregation according to origin or geographic situation. Benedictine monasteries increase in numbers by starting foundations that later become independent. These Benedictine monastic families unite worldwide in a loose Confederation of Benedictine Monastic Congregations. While each monastery is autonomous, and so each hourorium may differ according to the needs of the community, under the Rule of Saint Benedict each community shares common Benedictine vows.

Saint John's Abbey is one of nineteen independent abbeys that make up the American-Cassinese Congregation www.amcass.org.  The oldest member – of which Saint John's is its first daughter-house – is Saint  Vincent Archabbey in western Pennsylvania. Most of the other abbeys have a similar, direct relationship to Saint Vincent, and others began as dependent foundations, but on achieving independence they became full members of the congregation.  A few came to join the congregation, founded in 1855, in novel ways and varied circumstances.

Abbot President Elias Lorenzo OSB (St. Mary's Abbey) leads the American-Cassinese Congregation assisted by five monks on his council, six financial advisors that help with visitations of the abbeys, and a procurator (agent) in Rome.  The congregation is represented in 15 of the United States, Puerto Rico, and in six other countries on three continents. The customs and practices of the Bavarian Congregation were a major influence for the American-Cassinese Congregation. Both congregations value the Holy Guardian Angels as their heavenly patrons.