Having refused to marry at 15, Clare was moved by the dynamic preaching of Francis. He became her lifelong friend and spiritual guide.
At 18, Clare escaped from her father’s home one night, was met on the road by friars carrying torches, and in the poor little chapel called the Portiuncula received a rough woolen habit, exchanged her jeweled belt for a common rope with knots in it, and sacrificed her long tresses to Francis’ scissors. He placed her in a Benedictine convent, which her father and uncles immediately stormed in rage. Clare clung to the altar of the church, threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair, and remained adamant.
Sixteen days later her sister Agnes joined her. Others came. They lived a simple life of great poverty, austerity, and complete seclusion from the world, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second Order. At age 21, Francis obliged Clare under obedience to accept the office of abbess, one she exercised until her death.
The Poor Ladies went barefoot, slept on the ground, ate no meat, and observed almost complete silence. Later Clare, like Francis, persuaded her sisters to moderate this rigor: “Our bodies are not made of brass.” The greatest emphasis, of course, was on gospel poverty. They possessed no property, even in common, subsisting on daily contributions. When even the pope tried to persuade Clare to mitigate this practice, she showed her characteristic firmness: “I need to be absolved from my sins, but I do not wish to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ.”
Contemporary accounts glow with admiration of Clare’s life in the convent of San Damiano in Assisi. She served the sick and washed the feet of the begging nuns. She came from prayer, it was said, with her face so shining it dazzled those about her. She suffered serious illness for the last 27 years of her life. Her influence was such that popes, cardinals, and bishops often came to consult her—Clare herself never left the walls of San Damiano.
Francis always remained her great friend and inspiration. Clare was always obedient to his will and to the great ideal of gospel life which he was making real.
A well-known story concerns her prayer and trust. Clare had the Blessed Sacrament placed on the walls of the convent when it faced attack by invading Saracens. “Does it please you, O God, to deliver into the hands of these beasts the defenseless children I have nourished with your love? I beseech you, dear Lord, protect these whom I am now unable to protect.” To her sisters she said, “Don’t be afraid. Trust in Jesus.” The Saracens fled.
Words are never large enough or small enough to write you but I try again. buona sera, good evening. I always think about you at this time of sunset. It is during this hour that I put aside everything about the day which is not important and hold to my heart our inner path, the love we know. It is a good practice. I can safely say that my small light in the garden of my heart has become a diamond. I feel quite strong and God shines very bright. In a few hours in the dark of night, I will be sinking inside to our Lord in gratitude. Then I go to sleep. Thank you, Francis, for leading me on this path of chasing God, instead of worldly things. Thank you for showing me it is not really a chase at all, but rather a great finding, finding God always very close at hand, as close as my heart.
Saint Clare, a wealthy woman from the central Italian town of Assisi, gave up all her possessions to pursue the goals of poverty and service preached by Saint Francis. She founded an order of nuns known as the Poor Clares, which was recognized by the Pope in 1253. This painting depicts the vision of the death of Saint Clare as experienced by one of her followers, Sister Benvenuta of Diambra.
In the vision of Saint Benvenuta, the Virgin Mary and a procession of virgin martyrs appeared to Saint Clare on her deathbed. Here Mary, dressed in a rich brocade robe, supports Saint Clare’s head, while the other elegantly robed and crowned saints follow behind, identified by the tiny attributes they hold.
The work of the Master of Heiligenkreuz, who was probably active in Lower Austria, illustrates the cosmopolitan aspect of the International Style, which flourished around 1400. While his exaggerated figures with their bulbous foreheads and clinging drapery are characteristically Austrian, the anonymous painter must also have been aware of the most advanced art produced at the courts of Paris and Prague. Thus the surface of the panel is worked in a variety of different techniques to fashion a particularly splendid object.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF
On June 13, Catholics honor the memory of the Franciscan priest St. Anthony of Padua. Although he is popularly invoked today by those who have trouble finding lost objects, he was known in his own day as the “Hammer of Heretics” due to the powerful witness of his life and preaching.
The saint known to the Church as Anthony of Padua was not born in the Italian city of Padua, nor was he originally named Anthony. He was born as Ferdinand in Lisbon, Portugal during 1195, the son of an army officer named Martin and a virtuous woman named Mary. They had Ferdinand educated by a group of priests, and the young man made his own decision to enter religious life at age 15.
Ferdinand initially lived in a monastery of the Augustinian order outside of Lisbon. But he disliked the distraction of constant visits from his friends, and moved to a more remote house of the same order. There, he concentrated on reading the Bible and the Church Fathers, while living a life of asceticism and heartfelt devotion to God.
Eight years later, in 1220, Ferdinand learned the news about five Franciscan friars who had recently died for their faith in Morocco. When their bodies were brought to Portugal for veneration, Ferdinand developed a passionate desire to imitate their commitment to the Gospel. When a group of Franciscans visited his monastery, Ferdinand told them he wanted to adopt their poor and humble way of life.
Some of the Augustinian monks criticized and mocked Ferdinand’s interest in the Franciscans, which had been established only recently, in 1209. But prayer confirmed his desire to follow the example of St. Francis, who was still living at the time.
He eventually obtained permission to leave the Augustinians and join a small Franciscan monastery in 1221. At that time he took the name Anthony, after the fourth-century desert monk St. Anthony of Egypt.
Anthony wanted to imitate the Franciscan martyrs who had died trying to convert the Muslims of Morocco. He traveled on a ship to Africa for this purpose, but became seriously ill and could not carry out his intention. The ship that was supposed to take him to Spain for treatment was blown off course, and ended up in Italy.
Through this series of mishaps, Anthony ended up near Assisi, where St. Francis was holding a major meeting for the members of his order. Despite his poor health, Anthony resolved to stay in Italy in order to be closer to St. Francis himself. He deliberately concealed his deep knowledge of theology and Scripture, and offered to serve in the kitchen among the brothers.
At the time, no one realized that the future “Hammer of Heretics” was anything other than a kitchen assistant and obedient Franciscan priest. Around 1224, however, Anthony was forced to deliver an improvised speech before an assembly of Dominicans and Franciscans, none of whom had prepared any remarks.
His eloquence stunned the crowd, and St. Francis himself soon learned what kind of man the dishwashing priest really was. In 1224 he gave Anthony permission to teach theology in the Franciscan order – “provided, however, that as the Rule prescribes, the spirit of prayer and devotion may not be extinguished.”
Anthony taught theology in several French and Italian cities, while strictly following his Franciscan vows and preaching regularly to the people. Later, he dedicated himself entirely to the work of preaching as a missionary in France, Italy and Spain, teaching an authentic love for God to many people – whether peasants or princes – who had fallen away from Catholic faith and morality.
Known for his bold preaching and austere lifestyle, Anthony also had a reputation as a worker of miracles, which often came about in the course of his disputes with heretics.
His biographers mention a horse, which refused to eat for three days, and accepted food only after it had placed itself in adoration before the Eucharist that Anthony brought in his hands. Another miracle involved a poisoned meal, which Anthony ate without any harm after making the sign of the Cross over it. And a final often recounted miracle of St. Anthony’s involved a group of fish, who rose out of the sea to hear his preaching when heretical residents of a city refused to listen.
After Lent in 1231, Anthony’s health was in decline. Following the example of his patron – the earlier St. Anthony, who had lived as a hermit – he retreated to a remote location, taking two companions to help him. When his worsening health forced him to be carried back to the Franciscan monastery in Padua, crowds of people converged on the group in hopes of paying their homage to the holy priest.
The commotion surrounding his transport forced his attendants to stop short of their destination. After receiving the last rites, Anthony prayed the Church’s seven traditional penitential psalms, sung a hymn to the Virgin Mary, and died on June 13 at the age of 36.
St. Anthony’s well-established holiness, combined with the many miracles he had worked during his lifetime, moved Pope Gregory IX – who knew the saint personally – to canonize him one year after his death.
“St. Anthony, residing now in heaven, is honored on earth by many miracles daily seen at his tomb, of which we are certified by authentic writings,” proclaimed the 13th-century Pope.
A poem celebrating devotion to St. Anthony
a barefoot contessa walking down Mulberry Street
wearing the robe of Saint Anthony
the brown of the robe, two shades darker then her brown sicilian skin
a white thick rope around her waist, knotted at the end,
a rosary draped around her hands, the cross hanging at the end she was one of many, in this sea of brown,
lips moving with silent prayers
and how they formed me
she had green eyes, what visions were forming?
and how they formed me
in silence, not a word spoken
her stories were ancient, stone slabs and sand
celebrating with two lilies in a vase, a reminder
and how they formed me
she was unlike her sisters, they had voices, loud voices
my mother, my aunt, my other aunt
they had modern stories, cigarettes and cat-eye glasses
dresses made to order, nightclubs and frank sinatra
In this fascinating, candid interview, Sister Mary Catharine, OP, takes Regina Magazine on an intimate journey through the life of a thriving cloistered community of Dominican nuns.
Q. Where is your Order? How long has it been there?
Our Monastery of our Lady of the Rosary is in Summit, New Jersey, a bedroom community of New York City and a quick 52 minute train ride from the city.
Summit is a very Catholic city with a small town feel. We began our monastery 94 years ago in 1919. Summit was considered a healthy place to live away from New York. It was touted as the “Denver of the East” for its high altitude!
Q. Can you tell us a bit about its founding? About the Dominicans in general — brief history?
The Nuns of the Order of Preachers were founded by St. Dominic and his bishop, Bishop Diego in 1206, ten years before the friars. So, we are their elder sisters!
Actually, St. Dominic never planned to found anything. Stunned by the Albigensian heresy rampant in southern France he began preaching to bring the people back to the truth.
The Albigensian hersey was based on a dualist god: the god of spirit (the “good” god) and the god matter (the “evil” god). Because of their austere way of life the heretics attracted many people. Converting these people back to the Catholic Faith was not easy.
A group of women, used to living the austere life of the heretics, converted to the Faith through the preaching of St. Dominic. A man of great compassion, St. Dominic saw that he now needed to take care of their physical needs.
Many of these women were disowned by their heretic families and had no place to live. So, he gathered them together at a little abandoned church, Notre Dame du Prouilhe and gave them a habit, rule of life, etc. They were desperately poor and St. Dominic would beg for them.
From the very beginning these first moniales were associated with the Order through their prayer and penance. In fact, the first monastery itself was called “the Holy Preaching” which is a powerful testimony to the witness of monastic-cloistered life.
The early nuns were called the Sister Preacheresses although they were cloistered and never went out to preach! The vocation of a Nun of the Order of Preachers is unique because we are fully monastic and contemplative but part of an evangelical and apostolic Order. One has to have a deeply apostolic heart yet find its expression not in the apostolate but in a life of hidden prayer.
Q. Tell us about the famous St. Dominic
For the first 10 years St. Dominic preached almost entirely alone in southern France. He had companions for a while but then they left. I’m sure he received great comfort in having the monastery as his “home base.”
St. Dominic would preach all day and pray all night. We know from the testimonies of the early friars that he wasn’t a quiet person when he prayed! He would groan and shed copious tears. He would cry out, “O Lord, what will become of sinners!”
His life of prayer and preaching is lived out in the Order by the Friars and Nuns in a complementary way: the friars go out to preach while the nuns carry within the innermost sanctuary of their compassion all sinners, the downtrodden and the afflicted. Like Esther, they go before the King pleading for the salvation of all. Like Moses, they raise their arms in prayer while the battle rages below.
What is commonly not known is that the friars and the nuns are united not just spiritually but juridically through our profession of obedience to the Master of the Order. Together we form the Order of Preachers. We have distinct but complimentary ways of expressing the Order’s mission to “preach for the salvation of souls”.
Q. What is a contemplative’s life like?
To answer this question fully would take several books and at the same time it can’t really be expressed!
I think the first word that comes to mind is JOY. Not that there aren’t hardships as in any vocation but through it all there is a deep abiding joy because I am totally consecrated to God to love and praise Him. The contemplative vocation is a gift beyond words and one for which I will be thanking God for all eternity!
For Dominican contemplative nuns the Word of God is primary. Our constitutions state that the monastery is to be a place where “the Word of God can dwell abundantly in the monastery.”
So, first we ponder the word through lectio divina and through theological study, we sing Mass and the entire Divine Office; we listen to God’s Word as it is expressed through our sisters.
Q. How is your Order governed?
Our manner of government is ordered so that our fraternal life can be “one mind and heart in God”. This means we come together as a chapter to discuss things so we can make a decision that is truly centered in God and not just what I want. This isn’t always easy. It requires that we listen to our sisters and that we be willing to be changed. We have to allow grace to be operative in us. The goal is not majority rule but consensus.
Q. What is your work and daily life like?
Our life is intensely liturgical. Holy Mass and the Office shape our day. Everything else is fitted in around it. So, with liturgical prayer, private prayer and our privileged hours of the “adoring Rosary, which is praying the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance we have about 5 to 6 hours of prayer each day.
Our work is simple, like that of Our Lady at Nazareth. We do the cooking, cleaning, sacristy, laundry, answer the mail, pay the bills, the garden, soap department, etc. Young women are always surprised at how full our days are. You go to bed tired at night!
During recreation times we like to just be together to talk, play games, go for a walk. There is a lot of laughter. Someone once said that our recreations are “high energy!”
Q. Many people, if asked, would probably guess that living in a cloister is very limiting. Is this true?
The cloister frees us immensely! One of the biggest fears in those discerning a contemplative vocation is that the cloister is seen as squashing freedom but it is just the opposite.
The cloister broadens us. It frees us from so many cares and concerns, even something as simple as not minding a stain on my scapular! This freedom isn’t from things so much as for something, really for Someone!
The enclosure is the ‘Garden Enclosed’ of the Song of Songs. Our life is entirely centered on Christ our Spouse alone. Papal enclosure is a great gift of the Church that allows us to live our contemplative life well.
When I have to leave the enclosure for something necessary I am always so glad to be back. The world is so noisy, both audibly and visually. I really don’t understand how people stay sane!
Q. Your Order never gave up their habits. Do you think this has affected your stability, as compared to other orders that did?
I entered long after the upheavals of the 60’s but I have never heard either the nuns or the friars even question whether we should give up the habit. The habit is our Blessed Mother’s gift to us and we treasure it dearly.
Actually Dominicans consider only the scapular as the habit and is the only part blessed. Well, the cloistered nuns also have their veil blessed during a beautiful part of the Solemn Profession rite called the Blessing and Imposition of the Veil. The veil is blessed and then the prioress solemnly veils the newly professed. It’s very beautiful.
Every nun in the world wears the habit! There might be slight variations of hem height, sleeve width, veil style but we all wear the habit. Get a group of nuns together at a meeting and eventually we’ll be asking each other the important question: “Where do you get your fabric from?” The habit is a non-issue.
Q. So where does the stability come from?
I think our Order’s stability comes first from a tremendous gift of God. We are nearly 800 years old and we have never had a division. We’ve come close but it hasn’t happened. There is only one Order of Preachers. One constitution for the friars: one constitution for the nuns.
Do you realize what a gift of God’s love this is? In his address to the Poor Clare nuns at Assisi, Pope Francis emphasized that the devil wants to destroy a community by causing division. The Order of Preachers from the very beginning has had a great devotion to our Lady and I think it is her protection that has kept us united.
Although St. Dominic died just five years after the Order was founded he left us with such a remarkable charism and form of government that it has shaped the Order these 800 years. Our manner of government is crucial to our stability. And most of all the preaching mission of the Order is perennial for each generation and time. One of the wonderful things about being such an old Order is that we’ve made every mistake in the book but we trust in God’s mercy and that of our sisters and brothers.
Q. How are your vocations doing?
In the past eight years we’ve had twelve postulants enter and seven have persevered so far. This is such a blessing. Our young sisters come from several countries and all over the USA. Each sister is so different!
Q. Can you tell us some recent vocation stories?
Our Sr. Mary Magdalene of the Immaculate Conception, O.P. is a native of Kansas and in college was part of the party scene. One night she lay in bed and realized that if she continued along this path she would die. It was a moment of grace when she says she was given the opportunity to choose. Gradually, she began attending Mass at the Newman Center at college that had a holy and dynamic priest.
One day she told him she thought she had a religious vocation; an idea that terrified her. At his suggestion she visited a Carmelite monastery nearby to experience cloistered life which she didn’t even know existed. At the end of her weekend she said, “These nuns are crazy and I think I might be as crazy as they are!”
She began a 54 day rosary novena and made the total consecration to Our Lady according to St. Louis de Monfort which was a source of great grace as well. She wrote to many monasteries and became attracted to the Dominican charism. About the same time the Newman Center at college received the total 10 tickets for the state of Kansas for the Papal Mass of Pope Emeritus Benedict at Yankee Stadium, NYC. This was in 2008. Because this was considered the official Mass of the Holy Father’s visit to the United States every diocese in the country received a certain number of tickets. As you can imagine the further west, the fewer tickets!
She wrote to our monastery asking if she could visit and in her less than 24 hour visit and on the 57th Day of her Rosary Novena she knew that this was the place God was calling her. She is now preparing for Solemn Profession next year.
Q. How do you sustain your life, financially?
We are mendicant and dependent on Divine Providence. God always provides and we have many wonderful friends and benefactors. Whenever there is a needed repair the Lord provides with unexpected resources and it can be done! God is so good to His spouses!
We also have a small business selling the soaps, creams, lip balms, room sprays, candles, woodcraft we make and books we publish. Mostly this is through the internet and the monastery’s tiny gift shop although we have some wholesale customers as well, mostly Catholic gift shops, retreat centers, etc.
Q. How did the idea for a soap and candle business come about?
We have a guild of about 70 volunteers who help us by serving as receptionist, drivers, etc. and every year we make a little Christmas gift for them. For some reason, lost in time, it’s the novice mistress’s responsibility to take care of this and someone suggested soap to me. Seven years ago, one Sunday afternoon in August I spent time searching the internet about how to make soap and learned a lot!
At about the same time our daily offerings were really down—sometimes receiving no more than $5 a day—and we had just received 4 postulants so our healthcare insurance really went up! We began selling our soap in the gift shop. We were going to have only 5 varieties. That lasted about 6 weeks. We now make hand crème and lip balms using our own formula, room sprays and now candles.
We are a relatively young community. I think our average age is about 47, so that means we have a large healthcare insurance expense. Since, unlike the active sisters, we don’t teach or bring in a paycheck, the small income from our Seignadou Soaps has proved to be very helpful toward meeting those costs.
Q. Who is your chief soap-maker?
Right now the novitiate sisters are assigned the work of the soap room. When a postulant enters she gradually learns all aspects of it. Although there may be sisters who are more “expert” than others, tomorrow another may be given the assignment of learning the craft while the “expert” is assigned to another job in the monastery.
It works out well because the soap room is only busy at certain times of the year. The sisters in the novitiate have formation classes and that is the priority.
Q. What kind of people come to pray at your chapel?
People from all walks of life come to our chapel. The doors are open from 6AM, when we pray Lauds, until about 7PM at night and everyone is welcome. All day people come to be with our Lord. Some are regulars who come daily and spend hours. We have several “rosary groups” who use our chapel on certain days. For example, we have mother-daughter group that prays the Rosary every 1st Thursday of the month. Other groups schedule a time to visit our chapel.
Some people come to our monastery to purchase our Seignadou Soap products and find that we have a chapel open all day long. Amazed, they ask, “You mean I can come and pray here?” We never thought of soap as a means of evangelization!
Q. Why else do they come?
We’re not only a monastery but a shrine, the first shrine in the USA to our Lady of the Rosary. But we’re not a touristy type shrine. The focus is on spending time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, which is exposed every day and three nights a week.
We also have a replica of the Shroud of Turin that dates back to 1624. It was commissioned by the Duchess Maria Magdalena, the wife of Cosmo di Medici. It was laid on the real Shroud and the story goes that the stain on our shroud copy appeared when it was lifted up from the Shroud.
In 1988 a team of scientists did a “dry run” on our shroud copy in preparation for their testing on the real Shroud and they did some tests of the side wound stain on our copy. They said that the DNA was the same on both. Our shroud copy in our chapel is the source of much devotion for many people who visit and that is even more important.
Q. I’ve heard that the beauty of your liturgy is quite a draw.
Our liturgy draws people to our monastery. It’s not unusual for someone to call up to ask the times for when “the nuns do the singing”. Often someone else has told them about the beauty of our chant.
We have a dear friend who is Jewish and an artist. One evening she was worried about some family problems. She decided to visit the chapel on the advice of a Catholic friend. She heard us singing Vespers behind the grille and was so taken by the beauty of the chanting that she contacted us and eventually did a trilogy of books featuring the monastery as seen through her artwork.
Often, at Rosary and Sext at 11:30 PM or Office of Readings and None at 3:00 PM, it’s not unusual to see 10-15 people in the extern chapel. We’re happy they join us for the Office as we believe that this is the most important gift we can give to people—the opportunity to simply BE with Jesus who is here for us 24/7!
Our monastery is situated on a hill in a city called Summit. Like our father, St. Dominic we are meant to radiate the light of Christ. Not in words but in with our life. Eight hundred years later, we are still Sister Preacheresses, still a Holy Preaching!
Traditionally, AD 529 is considered to be the year in which St Benedict founded the monastery at Montecassino. He died and was buried there around 547. Some decades later, the monastery was destroyed and not rebuilt for a long time. The monastic community and the living tradition of Benedict seemed to have disappeared.
The Spreading of the Rule
However, copies of his Rule survived in Roman libraries. Around 594 Pope St Gregory the Great praised this Rule and its author, increasing the popularity of both. Next, the Rule is found in some monasteries in Southern Gaul (modern France) and elsewhere, normally used by the abbot together with rules written by other monastic fathers to help him to guide the community. In the early 8th century, monks from England proudly proclaim that they follow only the Rule of Benedict – the first genuine „Benedictines“. They popularize this rule further through their mission in continental Europe and eventually in 816/17 an important synod declares Benedict’s Rule binding for all monks. Throughout the Carolingian empire which covers modern France, Belgium, Holland Switzerland, Germany, parts of Italy and Austria, hundreds of monasteries of monks and nuns come now under the Rule of Benedict. Simultaneously, the observance of these monasteries is unified, even in areas where the Rule left details to the discretion of the abbot. In the Latin West, religious life is now mostly Benedictine. The monasteries become important centers of religious life, but also of political administration, of economic development and of learning, both theological and secular. Books are written and copied in the scriptoria (writing rooms) of the monasteries, and abbey schools train the clergy and the ruling elite. The monks dedicate themselves mainly to liturgical prayer, whose amount gradually increases. The monasteries own farms and sometimes whole villages, whose peasants sustain the monks with part of their produce. In the ninth century the papacy starts to protect some monasteries from the interference of noblemen and local bishops. Cluny in Burgundy, founded in 910, eventually establishes a huge family of monasteries under one abbot. In the 12th century several hundred houses belonged to it.
Decays and Reforms
The wealth and social role of the monasteries attracts also criticism, and several reform movements try to return to simpler ways of life and a more original understanding of Benedict’s rule. The Cistercians have the greatest impact. Within a short period several hundred monasteries of „white monks“ are founded, established as a clearly defined order with an efficient organization that balances unifying elements like the general chapter of all abbots and clear common principles with local autonomy and supervision through visitations.
In 1215 and in 1336 the papacy attempts to give a similar structure to the remaining „black“ Benedictines, initially with little success. Meanwhile, life in Europe has shifted from the countryside to cities. Newer orders like the Franciscans and the Dominicans respond to the spiritual and intellectual desires of city dwellers. While Benedictines continue to be found all over Europe, they are no longer the main protagonists of religious life.
From the 15th century onwards, monasteries try to protect themselves from the interference of secular or ecclesiastical lords by forming congregations. The most influential of these is the Congregation of Saint Justina in Italy, later called the Cassinese Congregation. It remains for many centuries a model which other Congregations copy. New forms of personal prayer and meditation are now introduced to the life of the monks, to complement the divine office and lectio. A new emphasis on the personal needs of the individual monk also leads to the introduction of cells, replacing the dormitories in use until then.
Turbulences and Rebirth
The so-called reformation in the 16th century turns against religious and monastic life of any kind. Protestant sovereigns use theological justifications to suppress the monasteries and confiscate their property. Some abbots and monks are killed, others simply retire from monastic life, return to their families or accept parishes. In England, Northern Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia monastic life disappears.
In Catholic countries, however, Benedictine monasticism begins to flourish again. Benedictine abbeys are being rebuilt in the splendid baroque style, and many monasteries become centres of scholarship, culture and education. And for the first time Benedictine life goes beyond Europe when the first abbeys of the New World are established in Brazil.
In the 18th century, new philosophical and political trends threaten monasticism. Faith comes under attack, and monasteries are seen as useless places of superstition and backwardness. In the decades after 1760, more than 95% of the monasteries in Europe are suppressed by governments or destroyed in the course of revolutions and wars. Churches are turned into factories, buildings are used as quarries, land and treasures or confiscated, books destroyed or sent to new national libraries.
But monasticism refuses to die. In the mid-19th century, a romantic rediscovery of medieval Christianity and monastic life takes place. In several countries old monasteries are re-founded or new communities created. Monastic life changes: the communities can no longer depend on rich endowments. The monks now work for their upkeep. The abbots have ceased to be lords and live much closer with their brothers. These monasteries fulfil important roles in the church, running major seminaries and schools, sometimes parishes or foreign missions. Because the Benedictines are still without any central organization, Pope Leo XIII establishes a study house in Rome, and in 1893 creates the Benedictine Confederation with an Abbot Primate at its head. Benedictine scholars rediscover the liturgical life of the early church. They influence the Liturgical Movement which prepares the reforms of the Second Vatican Council:
Most communities start singing in the vernacular, no longer in Latin. And the distinction between priests and brothers disappears. Most monasteries continue to attract Christians who want to spend a quiet time in prayer, who seek spiritual advice or who simply want to live alongside the monks for a few days.
A Worldwide Family
In 2018 the Benedictine Confederation numbers around 7500 monks in 400 monasteries, belonging to 19 different Congregations, with regional differences, particular missions or specific spiritual traditions. Some 13000 nuns and sisters also belong to the order. The Benedictines work closely with the Cistercians and the Trappists, orders which also follow St Benedict’s Rule. This rule has proved to be a guide for countless souls during 15 centuries.
OSB.ORG OSB DOT ORG Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta 5 00153 Rome Italy EDITOR Br. Richard Oliver OSB
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.
Pope Francis passed away on April 21, 2025, at age 88, and the Jesuit Conference joins people around the world in mourning. May he rest in the peace of Christ.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 17, 1936, Jorge Mario Bergoglio entered the Society of Jesus on March 11, 1958, and was ordained a priest on December 13, 1969. As a Jesuit, he served as novice master, a theology professor and provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina (1973-1979).
Undated photo of Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio , SJ (Jesuit Curia)
He was named auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992 and archbishop in 1998. Pope Saint John Paul II elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2001. On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope, making him the first Jesuit pope and the first pope from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere. Read his full obituary at America magazine.
Below, read a statement from Fr. Brian Paulson, SJ, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, on Pope Francis’ passing:
I join the countless people around the world who are mourning the death of the Holy Father Pope Francis at this hour. I pray for the repose of his soul and for the consolation of his family, friends and brother Jesuits. While more thorough reflections and examinations of Pope Francis’ legacy will be published in the coming weeks and months, I wanted to offer this brief expression of gratitude for the Holy Father’s extraordinary life of service to God’s people, energized by the love of Christ.
First and foremost, Pope Francis was a pastor. He consistently encouraged bishops, priests and all church ministers to meet people wherever they are in their life journeys, in messiness and complexity and ambiguity, and to help them grow in holiness. The Holy Father’s witness as a shepherd “with the smell of the sheep” from closeness to those on the peripheries of the church and society always inspired and challenged me in my own priestly ministry.
Pope Francis met refugees at Centro Astalli’s soup kitchen in Rome in 2013. (Jesuit Refugee Service)
And Pope Francis indeed went to the peripheries time after time: His first official trip outside of Rome as pope was to visit the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a common entry point to Europe for migrants, to pray and advocate for those who had left their homes and risked their lives in pursuit of a better future. He washed the feet of prisoners at Holy Thursday liturgies. He directed the construction of showers for the homeless in St. Peter’s Square. And he appointed cardinals from regions on the planet that had never seen a cardinal named there before — the Amazon, the Philippines, South Sudan, Myanmar and more. These decisions and hundreds of similar ones made headlines so often during Francis’ papacy that it’s easy for us to take them for granted, but let us not forget how much his boldness surprised us. I believe Pope Francis will always be remembered for how he brought marginalized individuals and communities to the heart of the church.
Pope Francis with Father General Arturo Sosa, SJ (Jesuit Curia)
I also believe future appreciations of Pope Francis’ leadership will reflect the ways his reforms in church governance, the roles of the laity, and the social engagement of the church in service to the world were rooted in the teachings of Vatican II. The “Francis Project,” as it has sometimes been called, was not his own personal vision alone, but one formed by his experiences as a leader in the Latin American church in the decades following the Council.
The distinctly Ignatian influence on Pope Francis’ ministry was also unmistakable. In listening to Pope Francis and reading his writings, it is clear to me how much his thought was marked by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The Spiritual Exercises are a “school of the heart” that help a retreatant to grow in self-knowledge of their gifts, weaknesses and sinfulness while meditating on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Ignatian spirituality is extraordinarily practical; it engages our own hopes, desires, dreams, struggles, joys and sorrows. In works like “Evangelii Gaudium” and “Laudato Si’,” just to name two, Pope Francis offered his own “school of the heart” meditations, inviting all believers to find the joy of the Gospel within their everyday lives and to commit to responding to “the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor” as an integral, concrete part of discipleship.
Fr. Brian Paulson, SJ, with Pope Francis
In recent years, the Synod on Synodality emerged as a signature moment of Pope Francis’ outreach toward the peripheries, calling the universal Catholic Church to live a deeper and more inclusive process of listening that includes the voices of all stakeholders. I pray this new mode of dialogue and decision-making continues to develop and take root in the church in the years to come.
Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others. -Pope Francis
I will close this brief reflection with a quote from “Evangelii Gaudium,” the richness of which will continue to make the document a gift to the church for generations. In the quote, as in the exhortation as a whole, we get a sense of what Pope Francis saw as the heart of the spiritual life. “Before all else,” Pope Francis writes, “the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others.” Let us honor Pope Francis by trying to follow that advice every day.
May the Holy Father Pope Francis rest in the peace of Christ, his brother and Lord.
“Lord make me an instrument of they peace, where there is hatred
let me sow love.” Patron of: Ecologists
Love for God and everything in creation so consumed St. Francis of Assisi, that he was able to commune with the natural world on a divine level. Taming wolves, quieting flocks of birds and infusing peace and contentment to the humanity he interacted with, we call on Francis of Assisi to bring us into the harmonious rhythms of the universe, where all of nature and mankind are at one with the divine force of creation. An unlikely mystic, Francis was born Giovanni Bernadone in the town of Assisi. His father, a proud member of the upper classes was a wealthy cloth merchant married to a woman from Provence. Because he frequently conversed in French with his mother, Giovanni was soon known as “Francesco” or “the Frenchman” by his friends and neighbors. Confident that his son would follow in his footsteps, the elder Bernadone indulged and catered to Francesco’s every whim and the youth enjoyed a pleasure filled existence in the company of others in his social caste. On a lark he set off with friends to take part in a war with Perugia. Much to his shock, he was taken prisoner and it took his family a year to ransom him back. Upon his return, he was bedridden and seriously ill. But in recovering his health, Francesco seems to have lost his identity. He suffered a great spiritual crisis as all interest in his old life and his father’s business waned and disappeared. While wandering the countryside he stopped into the deserted church of San Damiano and heard the crucifix say to him, “Francis, go and repair my house, which you see is falling down.” Happy to have some direction in his life, he took the request literally and began rebuilding the structure with his bare hands. Ultimately, his father disowned him and when Francis, renouncing his inheritance threw his clothing in the street, he donned the simple brown garment given him by the Bishop of Assisi.
Begging for supplies, Francis continued his work on San Damiano. Eventually he was joined by other disenchanted young men looking for a higher meaning in life. By simply following the exact tenets of Christ, this little band of friars, never owning anything, bartering labor for food and shelter began a movement of religious seekers that revolutionized the Church by the simple and loving way they spread the gospel. Instead of writing in church Latin he used colloquial Italian and in an effort to explain the story of Christ’s birth, he created a living tableau of animals and people – the first Christmas crèche.
A great poet and mystic, Francis was the first saint to receive the stigmata while in a meditative rapture. Filled with humility and though he founded one of the world’s greatest religious orders, Francis of Assisi was never ordained a priest. Upon his death he requested to be buried in the cemetery for criminals, but the people of Assisi so loved him that they took his body and interred it under the altar of their great cathedral.
Just as popular with nonCatholics as Catholics, Francis has inspired great artists, composers and writers. Assisi, Italy remains a great pilgrimage site for those wishing to pay him tribute.
Prayer
O Beloved Saint Francis, gentle and poor, your obedience to God, and your simple, deep love for all God’s creatures led you to the heights of heavenly perfection and turned many hearts to follow God’s will. Now in our day, in our ministry to the many who come here searching for peace and intercede for us we come before the Lord with our special requests…
Mention your special intentions here.
O Blessed Saint of God, from your throne among the hosts of heaven, present our petitions before our faithful Lord. May your prayers on our behalf be heard and may God grant us the grace to lead good and faithful lives. Amen Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
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