Forward To Benedict - Part2

5/5/23, 12:11 PM Forward to Benedict - Conclusion - District of the USA
Forward to Benedict - Conclusion
< Read Part 1 (https://sspx.org/en/forward-benedict)

We must not have an incorrect notion of how monasticism affects society. It is certainly not by striving to
implement a political program. No, the means are entirely supernatural. The weapons are, by the grace of God,
prayer, Faith, Hope and Charity. It is as Our Lord promised, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all
these things shall be given you besides" (Mt. 6:33).
Part II's Introduction
There is so much talk these days about restoration in the Church and of a Catholic society that we rarely consider
how Christendom was established in the first place. The answer is very simple—monks. Monks following the Rule
of St. Benedict to be precise. It may be a simplification, but any student of history knows that the monasteries
were the primary Christianizing and civilizing influence on a pagan (at best Arian) Europe. Dom Gueranger said,
“ "The Order of Saint Benedict is the great fact of Western Christianity, because its influences have acted,
through the centuries, upon religious and political society, and because the diverse religious families which
have succeeded one another for eight centuries stem from it, or are founded on its traditions"
(Solesmes and Dom Gueranger, by Dom Louis Soltner, p. 205). ”
Dom Gueranger said,
“ "What then is monasticism, this grand thing which the ancient world bore within itself and which, if we
believe the Fathers, seems to have harvested the excellent fruit of Christianity? It is the state in which man,
raised from the original fall by Jesus Christ, works to re-establish himself in the image of God by virtually
separating himself from all that can cause sin" (Ibid., p. 206). The monasticism that will solve social problems
is that which aims primarily at the reformation of the individual. Without holiness, nothing...; with holiness,
everything. ”
“ "Prepared by God Himself, full of God, the monk will be productive, with a productivity that cannot be
compared to that of others. This love of brethren, of the Church, that inspires his prayers, his work, his
penance in the cloister, will overflow into human society, and history will judge the degree of life which the
Church attains in any given century in proportion to the esteem rendered the religious state, the number of its
representatives, and what they do" (Ibid., p. 208). ”
Not only will it be the example of the monks, but their constant prayer and sacrifices. The Angelus has recently
treated of this aspect of the monks' work in the May 2001 issue. In this issue and next, we wish to address the
power of the monks' example and apostolate.—The Angelus
St. Benedict's Legacy
Before Benedict died, he had witnessed 12 monasteries founded in the Valley of the Po out of Monte Cassino
itself, and he witnessed the acceptance of his Rule by many of the existing monasteries of the East and the West.
Before the end of Benedict's century (6th century), Augustine of Canterbury led 40 Benedictine monks into Britain
and, following Augustine, monastery after monastery witnessed the growth of vocations that permitted St.
Laurence to serve as an Abbot at Canterbury, St. Justus at Rochester, St. Milletus at London, St. Paulinus at York,
St. Birinus at Wessox, St. Chad in Middlesex and St. Felix in East Anglia. A hundred monasteries were established
in Britain alone.
https://sspx.org/en/forward-benedict-conclusion 1/14
Following the conversion of England, the Benedictines entered Germany under St. Boniface, who established
monasteries in Friesland, Alemannia, Thuringia, Bavaria and Mentz. Sturm, by the middle of the 8th century, had
established monasteries in Prussia and Austria. In the first half of the 9th century St. Ansgar established
monasteries in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The work continued among the Croats, the Moravians, the Czechs,
the Poles, the Wends, the Servians, the Bulgarians, the Khazars and the Russians, northward to Iceland and
westward to Greenland. At the height of success, there were 35,000 separate monasteries under the Benedictine
Rule.
Integral Witnesses of Christ
The last words before Christ ascended into heaven were these, addressed to His disciples: "You shall be witnesses
unto Me in Jerusalem, in Judea and in Samaria and even to the uttermost parts of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
Christ had found many witnesses before and after Benedict. But Benedict strove to make his sons complete and
integral witnesses, radiating Christ's entire personality, not just one aspect or another.
The Benedictine knows Christ in the Holy Family at Bethlehem. He knows Christ in the Presentation and as a Child
sitting among the doctors in the temple. He knows Christ in the carpenter shop of Joseph. He knows Christ at the
marriage feast in Cana. He knows Christ curing the sick, the cripple and the leper and raising the dead to life. He
knows Christ having compassion on the multitude and feeding them. He knows Christ teaching the poor. He
knows Christ at prayer on the mountain, or in the desert and knows also that after prayer was the return to work.
He knows Christ instructing His disciples. He knows Christ opening the ancient books and revealing their
meaning. He knows Christ forgiving the sinner. He knows Christ driving the crooks out of the temple by physical
force. He knows Christ judged by the world, crowned with the crown of thorns, scourged, kissed with a traitor's
kiss and Christ obedient to the will of the Father until His crucifixion; obedience exemplified by the words. "Not
My will, but Thine be done." Such thorough witnesses unto Christ were the Benedictines.
Plan of the Monastery of St. Gall, Switzerland (9th c.) (https://sspx.org/sites/sspx/files/planofmonastery-stgall.pdf)
The Regeneration of the West
So immediate was the acceptance of the Rule of St. Benedict, that the entire organization of monastic life was
modified in accordance with his Rule. Then came vocations as never before experienced in the history of
Christianity.
In honor of the Apostles, bands of 12 monks usually were sent out to found a new monastery. Influenced by Our
Lord's Sermon on the Mount, they established their home on a hilltop or mountain side. The memory of Monte
Cassino influenced them. Christ's own words were determinative: "You are the light of the world. A city seated on
a mountain cannot be hid" (Mt. 5:14). The monk therefore chose the hilltop.
The early monasteries were founded in the waste places. This fact had a tremendous influence on the history of
civilization. The swamps below had to be drained. Bridges had to span creeks and streams and rivers. Roads had
to be built. It was economic pressure that made the Benedictine the foremost agriculturist of the world, the
foremost horticulturist, the leader in animal husbandry, the keeper of bees for cross fertilization.
The monks applied, through sheer necessity, all their mental and physical powers to make a wilderness
productive. Then came, after the practice, the science of knowing why success followed the practice. In
continental Europe, among the nomadic tribes they established their enclosures. They domesticated animals.
They cultivated the fields. About those settled and fixed monasteries, towns were built. Fulda, the monastery of
St. Boniface, for example, was a wild and desolate spot in a vast solitude of forest. Soon the neighboring forest
was cleared. The monks began farming and the seed for daily bread planted outside the monastery wall.
Nomads soon turned to the settled life of agriculture. Tribal life swarmed about the monastery and inside its
walls. Authority, law, justice, peace, charity and hospitality reigned. The rude pagan saw the contrast and
inquired. He found within, the sanctions of the spiritual life.
The monastery was built as a self-sufficient unit. It had to be enclosed because the habit and the enclosure
separated the monks from the world. The monastery was designed by the monks; that is why the Benedictines
became the principal architects of Europe for centuries. It was built of native stone or brick; that is why the
monks became the chief builders of Europe for centuries. Provisions had to be made for all phases of monastic
life. Because the life was primarily religious, the church was the center of the plan and all else were appendages.
Thus in England the cathedrals were built and around those cathedrals were the monastic buildings. In the years
that followed, towns and cities grew up around those monasteries. Now we have many a volume on the "cathedral
cities of England."
Division of Services
Cotts, in his most interesting volume, Scenes and Character of the Middle Ages, shows that even the English
monasteries were founded in the wilderness. He illustrates by the cases of St. Albans, St. Edmunds Bury,
Glastonbury and Wyke-Upon-Hull. The marshes of Glastonbury were set aside for the habitation of Benedictine
monks. The great reclamation project grew out of the fact that the monks were there assigned worthless lands.
They drained them. They built roads and bridges.
The monastery had to provide not only the church, but living quarters for the monks and separate quarters for
the Abbot. Because the monastery was the hospital of Europe, it had to provide for the sick, the insane and the
infirm. Because it was the poor house, it had to provide living quarters for the poor and the aged. Because it was
the orphanage of Europe, it had to house the children. Because it was the hotel of Europe, it had to house the
traveler. Because the children had to be educated, the monastery provided the school room.
Within the enclosure were the various buildings essential to economic self-sufficiency, the barns for the livestock,
the poultry houses, the granary, the mill, the bakery, the brewery, the blacksmith shop; the wagoner, the dyer,
the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the tailor, the butcher, the carpenter, the woodcarver and the worker in
precious metals.
Within the enclosure was also the court around which the monastery buildings were circled. In the center of the
court was often a cross of stone. Around this cross the market and fairs were conducted. Christ was King of
economics.
Here the monastery sold its excess goods and acquired what it lacked. Many monastic goods were works of art
such as the beautiful works in gold and silver, in tapestry or painting, in leather or woodcarving. So that pride of
mind or glory of achievement would not defile the soul of the monk who designed or fabricated the goods, St.
Benedict provided in his Rule that he who boasted of his works, who prided himself on what return his work
brought to the monastery, was to be shifted to more humble tasks:
If there are artisans in the monastery, they are to practice their craft with all humility, but only with the abbot's
permission. If one of them becomes puffed up by his skillfulness in his craft, and feels that he is conferring
something on the monastery, he is to be removed from practicing his craft and not allowed to resume it unless,
after manifesting his humility, he is so ordered by the abbot (RB 57:1-3).
In strange contrast to our day, the exceptional painter or sculptor might find himself a cowherd. A cowherd might
save his soul where a great artist would lose it.
Division of Labor
In the larger monasteries the full complement of officials indicated the division of labor and the essential
functions of each. As chief executive, the Abbot held complete authority. In the event of his absence,
the Prior ruled in his place. The Chanter naturally was in charge of the music. He trained the choir and taught
music to the young students. The Cellarer had charge of all the material goods. The Infirmerer was custodian of
the sick, the aged, and the infirm. The Almonerfed, clothed, and housed the needy. The Hospitaller welcomed
guests and extended the monastery's hospitality to them. The Kitchener was in charge of preparing and serving
the food. The Porter policed the doors, the Chamberlain cleaned the rooms and the Pages ran the errands.
The Master of Novices directed the young men who were entering the religious life. The Bailiffwas charged with
order and discipline.
In addition were numberless trades: The cobbler and shoemaker, the barber, the cook, the baker, the brewer,
the tailor, the spinner, the weaver, the wagoner, the shepherd, the forester, themiller, the cowherd and
the keeper of animals, poultry and bees. There were monks who labored in season and out of season, while
frequently freemen from outside the walls of the monastery were hired.
In the monastic economy, the cellarer was the steward. Under the Rule of Benedict he was a sacristan, for all
material things under his care were regarded as holy things. The tools and implements of the farm, the fabrics,
furniture and ornaments, were treated as sacred vessels (cf.RB 31:10-11).
Between the monastic enclosure and the outside world was a liaison officer, the seneschal, a contact officer on all
affairs with the neighbors, the towns, the state or other monasteries. The seneschal ruled the lands under the
authority of the abbot, presided over the abbey court, decided disputes, applied the monastic law and punished
offenders, all under the authority and approval of the Abbot, who was the final court of appeal and last resort.
Because Benedict wanted the monk within the enclosure, the seneschal was chosen from among laymen.
The Benedictine almoner was at the monastery gate ready to hand to the poor their requirements. In fear and
trembling the poor were received. Benedict had remembered the words of Christ. "I was hungry, and you gave me
to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me;
sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me" (Mt. 25:35-36). The poor man was received as if
he were Christ Himself.
The monastery met the world at the gate of the almoner. It met the world in its poor. Today it is difficult to
comprehend this thought. We see the poor and write a check to some community fund. We pay liberally to the
professional to ease our conscience. We ourselves dare not meet the poor. We no more dare meet them than we
dare meet Christ. "Let Congress legislate, let the government spend large sums for relief purposes. We will take
our chance in taxation." That is our attitude or we worship the false God of the free market and naively think that
if we could just do away with big government, then everything would be solved.
In the day of Benedictinism, there was never a welfare-tax levied in England. From Augustine in 597 to Henry VIII
in 1536 there was never a land tax or a welfare tax. For six centuries the monastery of the Benedictine took care
of all the poor, all the orphans, all the aged, all the widows, all the sick, all the infirm, all the insane who were
thrown on the charity of the world. For six centuries the Benedictine monastery gave economic security,
permanent employment and work for life with substantial provision for hundreds of thousands of humble souls
who worked within its monastery walls. Until Catholics begin again to practice the corporal works of mercy, then
we have little ground to stand on when criticizing the excesses of big government spending.
The Monastery Gate
The Benedictine monastery met the world in its almoner at the monastery gate. It met the world at the cross of
Christ in the center of its court, which was the market place. It welcomed Christ in the poor. Yet it was not the
almoner at the gate that represented the civilizing key of the Benedictines nor, more importantly, was the
almoner the key to the monastic apostolate.
What pagan poor could ever distinguish Catholic bread from heretical bread or orthodox vegetables from
heterodox vegetables? The true key to the monastic apostolate was the practice of hospitality or guest friendship.
The Hospitality Apostolate
The fundamental principle the early Benedictine laid down was that the monk must be the host and not the guest.
For this was the hospitaller appointed. Good rooms were reserved in every monastery by provisions in St.
Benedict's Rule.
The monastery reveals not only the model of Christian family life, but also of Christian civil society—the Catholic
city. The device of the early Benedictines was to expose the life of the monastery to the pagan through guest
friendship. The monastery is a community built on Faith, Hope and Charity; on the love of God and neighbor. This
community was revealed to the Arians and pagans through hospitality. This hospitality, and one might say, even
the mere existence of such a community in the midst of unbelievers, was its apostolate. It sounds almost novel,
yet this is the way Europe was converted to the Catholic Faith. This is how the ruins of the Empire of the Caesars
became the Empire of Jesus Christ. This is how Christendom was built.
The station in life of the guest was never considered in the golden ages of Benedictinism. It was Christ who had
said, "I was a stranger, and you took me in" (Mt. 25:35). It was Christ whom the early Benedictine adored in the
stranger. It was the stranger who was subjected to the ideal of Christian society (both familial and civil), as he
accepted the hospitality of the monastery.
Within the monastery walls the pagan mind, whether Roman patrician or barbarian Goth, saw with his own eyes
the evidences of spiritual things. The necessities were provided by the labor of men placed against a just and
generous nature. The guest heard the praises of God sung. He watched the artisan work in wood or iron or
leather. He perhaps witnessed the staining of glass, the illumination of some copied manuscript, or the planning
of some new cathedral.
Yet the stranger saw no scramble for wealth. He did hear the chanting of the Divine Office. He witnessed the
teaching of children, the good works of the monks, and he saw all things done in moderation and out of love for
God.
This Rule is a summary of Christianity, a learned and mysterious abridgment of all the doctrine of the Gospel, of
all the institutions of the Fathers, of all the counsels of perfection, In it appear eminently prudence and simplicity,
humility and courage, severity and mildness, liberty and dependence: in it correction has all its firmness,
condescendence all its attractiveness, command its vigor and subjection its rest, silence its gravity and speech its
grace, strength its exercise and weakness its support. And yet, Fathers, St. Benedict calls it a beginning, in order
to nourish you continually in fear. —Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (17th c.).
Benedict and Plato
When Benedict wrote his Rule there was not a Christian nation within the confines of the old Empire. But amid the
eternal selfishness of man, the monastery was an eloquent sermon. Saints had abounded before Benedict, yet
there had been no regeneration of society. Benedict placed Christian influence on the throne. Nor did his
disciples do this by being guests in the houses of kings, nor by being clothed in soft garments. They did it by
being hosts to kings and hosts to the humble. In a little over a century all the peoples of Europe within the
confines of the Roman Empire were Christian. At the height of Benedictinism, we repeat, 35,000 separate
monasteries dotted Europe and conversions had included 50 queens, 47 kings, 20 emperors and 10 empresses.
Practically 200,000,000 souls were Christian.
Plato had planned an ideal republic. None was produced. Justinian had codified law, yet had healed no social
wounds. Orator and writer had combatted heresy, yet where they wrote or preached Vandal or infidel quickly
followed in possession of their territory. But throughout the old Roman Empire, the Benedictine Rule prevailed.
Roman in character, barbarian in vigor, it had proven its practicality in teaching the moral life to nations.
From the deserted places where typically 12 men first built a monastery, the monks personified and then created
around them an entire Christian society. Guests were never lacking and the monks, thanks to the enclosure, were
always "at home." The guests may have come to buy goods or may have come for counsel or for spiritual advice.
They may have been travelers. All were welcome to see how the Christian family lived under the authority of the
Father, the Abbot.
Soon nomadic tribes settled near the isolated monastery. Later rural and urban colonies occupied the
surrounding lands. Eventually what once was deserted wasteland became a cathedral city, a center of spiritual
and temporal life for the converted families and tribes.
Far from caring only for their own salvation, the monks gave themselves over to the welfare of the souls of
others. They distributed alms. They paid the debts of honest men beset by creditors. They became the protectors
of the husbandmen against the violence and rapine of the masters of Italy. Their monasteries were the asylums,
the hospitals, the hotels, the orphanages, the poor houses, the houses of refuge, the schools and the sanctuaries
of Europe. This is why the Church calls St. Benedict the Patron of Europe.
Monastic Contributions
Full appreciation of Benedictinism is as difficult as full appreciation of Christian civilization itself. For six
centuries there is no record of a monastery conducted under the Rule of Benedict ever having failed, though
hundreds were destroyed. Instead of failure, the "band of twelve" grew, because vocations became so abundant.
In turn, new groups were sent forth to bring new lands under cultivation, to build buildings, to recopy old
manuscripts; to adopt new orphans, new aged, new infirm; to erect new prototypes of Christian society and to
welcome anew the guest within the monastery walls to see Christianity in action.
The early Benedictines admonished the sinner, instructed the ignorant, counseled the doubtful, comforted the
sorrowful, bore wrongs patiently, forgave injuries and prayed for the living and the dead. These were the spiritual
works of mercy practiced consistently wherever Benedictinism flourished.
The early Benedictines fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, ransomed the captive,
harbored the harborless, visited the sick and buried the dead. These were the corporalworks of mercy practiced
wherever Benedictinism flourished under the Rule. The Rule commands these works by name in Chapter Four,
entitled "Instruments of Good Works."
Early Benedictinism gave Europe the three-field system of agriculture. It contributed to the staining of glass, the
illumination of manuscripts, the development of music and lower case letters; of Romanesque and Gothic
architecture, schools, and all the progress distinguishing craftsmanship from the 6th to the 13th centuries.
Benedictinism brought sanctification to the patrician Roman and rude barbarian alike. All met on the basis of
God's equality within the monastery walls: "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman;
there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). In entering the Benedictine
monastery patrician and Goth found the external influences swept away and internal freedom realized under
those moderate restraints which, far from enslaving men, freed them.
Rule of St. Benedict
Chapter 4:
What Are the Instruments of Good Works
1. In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
2. Then, one's neighbor as oneself.
3. Then not to murder.
4. Not to commit adultery.

5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To respect all men.
9. And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
10. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
11. To chastise the body.
12. Not to become attached to pleasures.
13. To love fasting.
14. To relieve the poor.
15. To clothe the naked.
16. To visit the sick.
17. To bury the dead.
18. To help in trouble.
19. To console the sorrowing.
20. To become a stranger to the world's ways.
21. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
22. Not to give way to anger.
23. Not to nurse a grudge.
24. Not to entertain deceit in one's heart.
25. Not to give a false peace.
26. Not to forsake charity.
27. Not to swear, for fear of perjuring oneself.
28. To utter truth from heart and mouth.
29. Not to return evil for evil.
30. To do no wrong to anyone, and to bear patiently wrongs done to oneself.
31. To love one's enemies.
32. Not to curse those who curse us, but rather to bless them.
33. To bear persecution for justice sake.
34. Not to be proud.
35. Not addicted to wine.
36. Not a great eater.
37. Not drowsy.
38. Not lazy.
39. Not a grumbler.
40. Not a detractor.
41. To put one's hope in God.
42. To attribute to God, and not to self, whatever good one sees in oneself.
43. But to recognize always that the evil is one's own doing, and to impute it to oneself.
44. To fear the Day of Judgment.
45. To be in dread of hell.
46. To desire eternal life with all the passion of the spirit.
47. To keep death daily before one's eyes.
48. To keep constant guard over the actions of one's life.
49. To know for certain that God sees one everywhere.
50. When evil thoughts come into one's heart, to dash them against Christ immediately.
51. And to manifest them to one's spiritual father.
52. To guard one's tongue against evil and depraved speech.
53. Not to love much talking.
54. Not to speak useless words or words that move to laughter.
55. Not to love much or boisterous laughter.
56. To listen willingly to holy reading.

57. To devote oneself frequently to prayer.
58. Daily in one's prayers, with tears and sighs, to confess one's past sins to God, and to amend them for the
future.
59. Not to fulfill the desires of the flesh; to hate one's own will.
60. To obey in all things the commands of the Abbot, even though he himself (which God forbid) should act
otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept, "Do what they say, but not what they do."
61. Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy, that one may be truly so called.
62. To fulfill God's commandments daily in one's deeds.
63. To love chastity.
64. To hate no one.
65. Not to be jealous, not to harbor envy.
66. Not to love contention.
67. To beware of haughtiness.
68. And to respect the seniors.
69. To love the juniors.
70. To pray for one's enemies in the ofc love of Christ.
71. To make peace with one's adversary before the sun sets.
72. And never to despair of God's mercy.
“
These then are the tools of the spiritual craft. If we employ them unceasingly day and night, and return them
on the Day of Judgment, our compensation from the Lord will be that wage He has promised: "Eye has not
seen, nor ear heard, what God has prepared for those who love Him." ”
Living in Christian family life, whether in the East at Byzantium, or to the south where the Carthaginian once
ruled, whether among the Goths, the Franks, the Vandals, in Greenland, Iceland; or among the Teutons, the Huns,
the Slavs or Magyars or the Czechs, the little Benedictine family used the natural norm and character of family life
to sweep aside all distinctions of race, language, religion, art, manner, customs and cultures. Building upon the
common cultural and linguistic heritage left behind by the Roman Empire and an understanding of the human
family as a common denominator among all nations, tribes and peoples, the Benedictines succeeded in
superimposing upon human society the beneficent influences of Christianity, in inculcating a respect for lawful
authority, a love of peace, a bond of charity and a complete regeneration of the world from the depths of
barbarism and paganism to the heights of true civilization.
Bishop Bossuet described Benedictine monasticism as follows:
“ "This Rule is an epitome of Christianity, a learned and mysterious abridgment of all the doctrines of the
Gospel, all the institutions of the Holy Fathers, and all the counsels of perfection." ”
St. Benedict recognized that the reformation of morals and the reformation of society required a social approach
to a social problem. He patterned the monastic life on the virtues of the family life and upon the precepts of the
Gospels. He epitomized those Gospels in his Rule and so set up a norm which was practical for beginners. Yet
under the Rule there was no watering down of Christian perfection. Above this minimum there was no limitation
to the height to which the human soul could rise.
The Decline of Monasticism in the West
For six centuries monasticism flourished under the Rule. When it started there was not a Christian nation within
the confines of the old Empire and when it ended all Europe was Catholic. But Benedictine monasticism died. It
had been born in the Rule of St. Benedict. When the Rule was ignored the death knell of western monasticism was
sounded.
Original Benedictinism died because wicked and selfish men, with no thought in their hearts for the Rule, looked
with jealous eyes upon the wealth produced under the Rule. They desired to pervert that wealth from the poor
and the glory of God to the satisfaction of their own ends. Kings, lords and prelates saw what wealth was
produced by the honest toil of the monks expended upon the natural resources of the lands of the monastery.
The militaristic demands had taxed heavily the feudal resources of king, baron and manorial lord. Soon the
powerful set about the work of destruction and perversion.
The Benedictine Rule had provided for local autonomy for the 35,000 monasteries of Europe. This local autonomy
was discarded in favor of an authority outside the resident Abbot. The idea of the family was shattered, for the
father was never at home. Christ had been recognized in the Abbot at the head of the monastery; now, Christ was
gone.
Commendam is the word accounting for the destruction of the monasteries. Once having perverted their control
of the monasteries, kings, cardinals, and emperors alike entrusted laymen and favorite prelates with the rich
benefices of the abbeys.
Western monasticism failed when the whole concept of St. Benedict was perverted. The secret was lost. The
pattern and model of Christ's life was lost. Men faced the new learning or Renaissance without spiritual
discernment. The old natural activities which were the means to the supernatural, now became ends in
themselves. Art became art for art's sake. The humble painting formerly produced by some unnamed monk as a
reminder of God or His saints became replaced by the technical artistry of some gifted mind. Such a mind was
now secure in the knowledge of anatomy, of tone, of color, of symmetry and harmony. Refinement was the end
and object of the work. Architecture, likewise, became glorified for the sake of symmetry and mathematics,
capacity and massiveness, while the little abbey church was lost to sight in the competition of vast monuments to
men.
The simple monastic schools gave way to the proud universities where contentious debate and deep erudition
replaced the real educational values of labor, prayer, charity, and obedience. Libraries were now assembled for
the glory of the catalogue.
Vocations stopped because the monastery life became in part a conspiracy to drain the wealth from the poor of
God into the pockets of others.
Abbots, far from governing under the Rule of Benedict, frequently were laymen who never looked at the Rule, but
directed from afar, in caprice, in self-interest, arbitrarily and unreasonably. Confusion reigned. Many sincere
souls who, under the Rule, would have been permitted to practice austerities, and at the same time edify their
brothers, were driven from the monastery back to an uncontrolled asceticism.
Spiritual values became less and less emphasized because there was no father of the family and monks naturally
stepped from the moderation of Benedict to an inordinate emphasis, sometimes on a corporal work of mercy,
sometimes on a spiritual work of mercy. In fact individualism became the sine qua non of religious life.
Above all, the old idea of hospitality was forsaken, and naturally so. With the father absent and with the
monasteries being looted by their rulers, who could invite guests? What could the guest see that might edify him
in this Christian home? How could the monks explain to their guest that their Abbot was a married prince living
out in the world enjoying the fruits of monastery, labor, or that the Abbot had never seen the monastery. The
social impact of monasticism upon civilization stopped the day that king, emperor, or cardinal placed his favored
friend in rich benefices.
The emphasis was taken from physical labor in the fields and in the shops of the artisan and placed on mental
labor. Throughout the Renaissance, men gloried in their intellectual achievements. Thus was introduced pride of
mind and an immoderate attachment to the work at hand. Individualism ran its full course from the
sensationalism of oratory to the vain boastfulness of erudition.
The day came when the 35,000 Benedictine monasteries of Europe were reduced to 5,000 in number. Not only
was the mass impact lost, but the very concept of the model and pattern of Christian family monastic life was
discarded.
The Protestant "Reformation" of the 16th century brought the dissolution of the monasteries. When Henry VIII
confiscated the monasteries of England he destroyed 26 Benedictine mitered abbeys and 71 additional
Benedictine abbeys and nunneries.
According to Spellman, the 27 mitered abbeys alone were worth nearly $660,000,000 (in 2018 dollars). This was
the booty that Henry VIII determined to take to himself and his friends; money and lands and durable goods that
had served the greater glory of God, the salvation of souls and the needs of the poor.
Following the dissolution of these monasteries, a prominent London merchant (and no friend of the monasteries),
Henry Brinklow, testified before both Houses of Parliament:
“ "The monks gave too little alms, but, now, where twenty pounds was given to the poor in over a hundred
places, not one meal's meat is given today." ”
All the aged, all the orphans, all the sick, all the insane who depended on the charity of real people (and not
government agencies or programs) were hospitalized and cared for by the monasteries. Upon their dissolution,
all social work was abandoned and grudgingly the state took over this work. One hundred years after Henry VIII
had dissolved the Benedictine monasteries, the English government was spending, as an example, the equivalent
of $86,000,000 per year (in 1997 dollars) for the public welfare, while $2,220,000,000 (in 1997 dollars) was the
equivalent of what the monasteries in England were spending in social welfare, in social security, in old age
insurance, in unemployment allocations, in orphanages, in asylums, in poor houses, had the work under
Benedict's Rule continued. Not only were the monks more generous, but we must not forget that performing a
corporal work of mercy has a heavenly reward whereas mailing a welfare check does not!
“ " Saint Benedict found the world in physical and social ruins, and his mission was to restore it in the way, not
of science but of nature, not as if setting about to do it, not professing to do it by any set time or by any rare
specific or any series of strokes, but so quietly, patiently, gradually, that often, till the work was done, it was
not known to be doing. It was a restoration, rather than a visitation, correction, or conversion. The new world
which he helped to create was a growth rather than a structure. Silent men were observed about the country,
or discovered in the forest, digging, clearing, and building; and other silent men, not seen, were sitting in the
cold cloister, tiring their eyes, and keeping their attention on the stretch, while they painfully deciphered and
copied and recopied the manuscripts which they had saved. There was no one that 'contended, or cried out,'
or drew attention to what was going on; but by degrees the woody swamp became a hermitage, a religious
house, a farm , an abbey, a village, a seminary, a school of learning, and a city of God." ”
—John Henry Cardinal Newman, "The Mission of St. Benedict," Historical Sketches.
Forward to Benedict
We know, if we take the time to read the encyclicals of the Popes, what is wrong in the world today. We know that
there was another period in the world, namely, the 42 years that elapsed between the fall of the Roman Empire in
476 and the ascension of Justus I to the Papacy in 518, when the world seemed on the brink of ruin.
St. Benedict of Nursia, Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV and Pius XI faced identical problems in the task of the
regeneration of human society. In particular it was Pius XI said:
“ And in truth, the world has nowadays sore need of valiant soldiers of Christ who strain every thew and sinew
to preserve the human family from the dire havoc which would befall it were the teachings of the Gospel to be
flouted, and a social order permitted to prevail, which spurns no less the laws of nature than those of God. ”
Again Pius XI said:
“ No stone, then, must be left unturned to avert these grave misfortunes from human society. Towards this
one aim we must tend all Our effort and endeavor, supported by assiduous and fervent prayers to God. For,
with the assistance of Divine Grace, the destiny of the human family lies in Our hands. The stone left unturned
is the stone of Benedictinism. Under it the world will find a Rule. Fourteen centuries ago that Rule was written.
Its principles are postulated on the precepts of the Gospels. Its instrumentality is the Christian family, living
enclosed within monastic walls obediently under the Abbot father. Stability is represented by the vow to
remain there until death. The monk fulfills his destiny as he sings the praises of his Creator. He earns his
bread in the sweat of his face as he pits his brawn against the resources of a generous nature. His mind is
developed by good books he reads every day. He produces wealth in abundance. Yet only the necessities are
for him. All superfluity goes to God's poor. Hospitality is practiced. Within the enclosure, monks are the host
to, and not the guest, of kings. The pagan and the infidel accept the hospitality. They observe the virtues of
Christian family life. They
inquire concerning the guiding principles underlying the practices they see. Naturally they inquire the aim and
object. They too see the lepers cleansed, the sick cured, the blind made to see and the poor having the Gospel
preached to them. This is not an idle dream or vain conceit for "age gives way to age, but the events of one
century are wonderfully like those of another." When society is perishing, the wholesome advice to give to
those who would restore it is to call it to the principles from which it sprang. To fall away from its primal
constitution implies disease, to go back to it recovery. (Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum) ”
Prologue from the Rule of St. Benedict
St. Benedict makes his case for men to take up the monastic life
Listen, my son, to your master's precepts, and incline the ear of your heart. Receive willingly and carry out
effectively your loving father's advice, that by the labor of obedience you may return to Him from whom you had
departed by the sloth of disobedience.
To you, therefore, my words are now addressed, whoever you may be, who are renouncing your own will to do
battle under the Lord Christ, the true King, and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.
And first of all, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it, that He
who has now deigned to count us among His sons may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds. For we must
always so serve Him with the good things He has given us, that He will never as an angry Father disinherit His
children, nor ever as a dread Lord, provoked by our evil actions, deliver us to everlasting punishment as wicked
servants who would not follow Him to glory.
Let us arise, then, at last, for the Scripture stirs us up, saying, "Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep." Let us
open our eyes to the deifying light, let us hear with attentive ears the warning which the divine voice cries daily to
us, "Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts." And again, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what
the Spirit says to the churches." And what does He say? "Come, My children, listen to Me; I will teach you the fear
of the Lord. Run while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you."
And the Lord, seeking His laborer in the multitude to whom He thus cries out, says again, "Who is the man who
will have life, and desires to see good days?" And if, hearing Him, you answer, "I am he," God says to you, "lf you
will have true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips that they speak no guile. Turn away
from evil and do good; seek after peace and pursue it. And when you have done these things, My eyes shall be
upon you and My ears open to your prayers; and, before you call upon Me, I will say to you, Behold, here I am."
What can be sweeter to us, dear brethren, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness
the Lord shows us the way of life.
Having our loins girded, therefore, with faith and the performance of good works, let us walk in His paths by the
guidance of the Gospel, that we may deserve to see Him who has called us to His kingdom.
For if we wish to dwell in the tent of that kingdom, we must run to it by good deeds or we shall never reach it.
But let us ask the Lord, with the Prophet,"Lord, who shall dwell in Your tent, or who shall rest upon Your holy
mountain?"
After this question, brethren, let us listen to the Lord as He answers and shows us the way to that tent, saying,
"He who walks without stain and practices justice; he who speaks truth from his heart; he who has not used his
tongue for deceit; he who has done no evil to his neighbor; he who has given no place to slander against his
neighbor."
It is he who, under any temptation from the malicious devil, has brought him to naught by casting him and his
temptation from the sight of his heart; and who has laid hold of his thoughts while they were still young and
dashed them against Christ.
It is they who, fearing the Lord, do not pride themselves on their good observance; but, convinced that the good
which is in them cannot come from themselves and must be from the Lord, glorify the Lord's work in them, using
the words of the Prophet, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give the glory." Thus also the Apostle
Paul attributed nothing of the success of his preaching to himself, but said, "By the grace of God I am what I am."
And again he says, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."
Hence the Lord says in the Gospel "Whoever listens to these words of Mine and acts upon them, I will liken him to
a wise man who built his house on rock. The floods came, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did
not fall, because it was founded on rock."
Having given us these assurances, the Lord is waiting every day for us to respond by our deeds to His holy
admonitions. And the days of this life are lengthened and a truce granted us for this very reason, that we may
amend our evil ways. As the Apostle says, "Do you not know that God's patience is inviting you to repent?" For the
merciful Lord tells us, "I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he should be converted and live."
So, brethren, we have asked the Lord who is to dwell in His tent, and we have heard His commands to anyone
who would dwell there; it remains for us to fulfill those duties. Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our
bodies to do battle under the holy obedience of His commands; and let us ask God that He be pleased to give us
the help of His grace for anything which our nature finds hardly possible. And if we want to escape the pains of
hell and attain life everlasting, then, while there is still time, while we are still in the body and are able to fulfill all
these things by the light of this life, we must hasten to do now what will profit us for eternity.
And so we are going to establish a school for the service of the Lord. In founding it we hope to introduce nothing
harsh or burdensome. But if a certain strictness results from the dictates of equity for the amendment of vices or
the preservation of charity, do not be at once dismayed and fly from the way of salvation, whose entrance cannot
but be narrow. For as we advance in the religious life and in faith, our hearts expand and we run the way of God's
commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love. Thus, never departing from His school, but persevering in
the monastery according to His teaching until death, we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ and
deserve to have a share also in His kingdom.
Application
Horarium
Our Lady of Guadalupe Traditional Benedictine Monastery, Silver City, New Mexico
3:00 AM Rise
3:25 AM Matins
Lectio Divina
(meditative reading)
6:00 AM Angelus
Lauds
Mental Prayer
7:25 AM Prime
Chapter Meeting
8:30 AM Study
9:30 AM Terce
Conventual Mass
11:00 AM Study
11:45 AM Sext
12:00 PM Angelus
Noon Repast
2:00 PM None
2:15 PM Manual Labor
(Community recreation
on Monday, usually
a hike)
5:00 PM Holy Rosary
5:30 PM Vespers
6:00 PM Mental Prayer
6:30 PM Collation
(a light meal)
7:10 PM Evening Chapter
Meeting
7:25 PM Compline
Angelus
8:00 PM To Bed
The simple thesis of this work is that as once Europe was on the brink of ruin, so today the world is on the brink
of ruin. Under the Rule, 35,000 independent monasteries, large and small, changed the face of the world as they
served the 200,000,000 people of Eastern and Western Europe. That is one monastery for every 5,700 people.
In our own America, there are 275,000,000 people needing the civilizing influence of, proportionately, 48,000
Benedictine monasteries. When we have even a fraction of this number of monasteries following the Rule of St.
Benedict faithfully, we can be assured that a real Restoration is under way.
The scheme of things as laid down by Benedict is as applicable today as when he wrote the Rule fourteen
centuries ago. Though designed with supernatural aims, we are told that it never can be improved on as a means
for temporal blessings.
The smug complacency that simply sits and criticizes the ills that befall us was characterized by Pope Leo XIII as
"false prudence." He castigated the cowards of the world, the hypocrites who mourn over the loss of faith, at the
perversion of morals and yet never trouble themselves to bring any remedy, but rather intensify the mischief
through forbearance and harmful dissembling.
One band of 12 is sufficient, as was Monte Cassino sufficient, to start the regeneration of the world. Let one band
of 12 dare to take the Rule as it is written and establish one monastery.Let them clear the forest, drain the
swamp, quarry the stone, build the enclosure, sing the praises of God, study and practice hospitality. They will
produce goods, sell them in the market place, become economically self-sufficing and distribute the surplus to
the poor.
If necessary, let them select a waste place, a place good for nothing else but a Benedictine monk. They will
welcome the stranger, practicing an apostolate of guest friendship and hospitality. They will be a type of the
Catholic city—a city on the mountain—radiating grace and good example for all the world to see. They will not
lend themselves to sensationalism nor be praised by the world as erudite, but in labor and in prayer and in
hospitality they will witness the increase of vocations.
Soon other bands of 12 will found other abbeys and the world may yet be dotted with monasteries of the children
of St. Benedict. If that day should come history will surely repeat itself. "For the hand of the Lord is not shortened,
that it cannot save, neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear" (Is. 59:1).
This work originally appeared in 1939 under the title of "Back to Benedict," has been edited and abridged by The
Angelus, and published in two parts in The Angelus in 2001. Its author, Louis B. Ward, is known to have written
it shortly after having gone on a retreat at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Procopius in Lisle, Illinois (which still
exists).
Find out more about the Benedictine Rule at Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery, New Mexico
(http://www.ourladyofguadalupemonastery.com/)

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5/5/23, 12:11 PM Forward to Benedict - Conclusion - District of the USA

Forward to Benedict - Conclusion

< Read Part 1 (https://sspx.org/en/forward-benedict)

Part II's Introduction

Dom Gueranger said,

St. Benedict's Legacy

Integral Witnesses of Christ

Plan of the Monastery of St. Gall, Switzerland (9th c.) (https://sspx.org/sites/sspx/files/planofmonastery-stgall.pdf)

The Regeneration of the West

The Monastery Gate

The Hospitality Apostolate

Benedict and Plato

Rule of St. Benedict

What Are the Instruments of Good Works

4. Not to commit adultery.

56. To listen willingly to holy reading.

Bishop Bossuet described Benedictine monasticism as follows:

The Decline of Monasticism in the West

Again Pius XI said:

Prologue from the Rule of St. Benedict

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