by
Fra Angelico (c. 1400–1455) in the
Friary of San Marco Florence The monastery at
Subiaco in Italy, established by
Benedict of Nursia 529, was the first of the dozen monasteries he founded. He later founded the
Abbey of Monte Cassino. There is no evidence, however, that he intended to found an order and the
Rule of Saint Benedict presupposes the autonomy of each community. When Monte Cassino was sacked by the Lombards about the year 580, the monks fled to Rome, and it seems probable that this constituted an important factor in the diffusion of a knowledge of Benedictine monasticism. Copies of Benedict's Rule survived; around 594
Pope Gregory I spoke favorably of it. The rule is subsequently found in some monasteries in southern Gaul along with other rules used by abbots.
Gregory of Tours says that at
Ainay Abbey, in the sixth century, the monks "followed the rules of Basil, Cassian, Caesarius, and other fathers, taking and using whatever seemed proper to the conditions of time and place", and doubtless the same liberty was taken with the Benedictine Rule when it reached them. In Gaul and Switzerland, it gradually supplemented the much stricter Irish or Celtic Rule introduced by
Columbanus and others. In many monasteries it eventually entirely displaced the earlier codes. Monastic scriptoria flourished from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Sacred Scripture was always at the heart of every monastic scriptorium. As a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole, active work. An anonymous writer of the ninth or tenth century speaks of six hours a day as the usual task of a scribe, which would absorb almost all the time available for active work in the day of a medieval monk. In the Middle Ages, monasteries were often founded by the nobility.
Cluny Abbey was founded by
William I, Duke of Aquitaine, in 910. The abbey was noted for its strict adherence to the Rule of Saint Benedict. The abbot of Cluny was the superior of all the daughter houses, through appointed priors. The
Cistercians branched off from the Benedictines in 1098; they are often called the "White monks". The dominance of the Benedictine monastic way of life began to decline towards the end of the twelfth century, which saw the rise of the
mendicant Franciscans and nomadic
Dominicans.
Austria and Germany Abbey
Saint Blaise Abbey in the
Black Forest of
Baden-Württemberg is believed to have been founded around the latter part of the tenth century. Between 1070 and 1073 there seem to have been contacts between St. Blaise and the Cluniac
Abbey of Fruttuaria in Italy, which led to St. Blaise following the Fruttuarian reforms. The
Empress Agnes was a patron of Fruttuaria, and retired there in 1065 before moving to Rome. The Empress was instrumental in introducing Fruttuaria's Benedictine customs, as practiced at Cluny, to
Saint Blaise Abbey in
Baden-Württemberg. Other houses either reformed by, or founded as priories of, St. Blasien were
Muri Abbey (1082),
Ochsenhausen Abbey (1093),
Göttweig Abbey (1094),
Stein am Rhein Abbey (before 1123) and
Prüm Abbey (1132). It also had significant influence on the abbeys of
Alpirsbach (1099),
Ettenheimmünster (1124) and
Sulzburg (), and the priories of Weitenau (now part of
Steinen, ),
Bürgel (before 1130) and
Sitzenkirch ().
France , southern aspect as in 1893
Fleury Abbey in
Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire,
Loiret was founded in about 640. It is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, and possesses the relics of St. Benedict. Like many Benedictine abbeys it was located on the banks of a river, here the
Loire. Ainey Abbey is a ninth century foundation on the
Lyon peninsula. In the twelfth century on the current site there was a
romanesque monastery, subsequently rebuilt. The seventeenth century saw a number of Benedictine foundations for women, some dedicated to the indigent to save them from a life of exploitation, others dedicated to the
Perpetual Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament such as the one established by
Catherine de Bar (1614–1698). In 1688 Dame Mechtilde de Bar assisted
Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien, queen consort of Poland, to establish a Benedictine foundation in
Warsaw. Abbeys were among the institutions of the Catholic Church swept away during the
French Revolution. Monasteries and convents were again allowed to form in the 19th century under the
Bourbon Restoration. Later that century, under the
Third French Republic, laws were enacted preventing religious teaching. The original intent was to allow secular schools. Thus in 1880 and 1882, Benedictine teaching monks were effectively exiled; this was not completed until 1901. In 1898 Marie-Adèle Garnier, in religion, Mother Marie de Saint-Pierre, founded a Benedictine house in
Montmartre (
Mount of the Martyr), in Paris. However, the
Waldeck-Rousseau's
Law of Associations, passed in 1901, placed severe restrictions on religious bodies which were obliged to leave France. Garnier and her community relocated to another place associated with executions, this time it was in
London, near the site of
Tyburn tree where 105 Catholic martyrs—including
Saint Oliver Plunkett and
Saint Edmund Campion had been executed during the
English Reformation. A stone's throw from
Marble Arch (), the
Tyburn Convent is now the Mother House of the Congregation.
Poland and Lithuania 's New Town, depicted by
Bellotto Benedictines are thought to have arrived in the
Kingdom of Poland in the 11th-century. One of the earliest foundations is
Tyniec Abbey on a promontory by the
Vistula river. The Tyniec monks led the translation of the Bible into Polish vernacular. Other surviving Benedictine houses can be found in
Stary Kraków Village,
Biskupów,
Lubiń. Older foundations are in
Mogilno,
Trzemeszno,
Łęczyca,
Łysa Góra and in
Opactwo, among others. In the
Middle Ages the city of
Płock, also on the Vistula, had a successful monastery, which played a significant role in the local economy. In the 18th-century benedictine convents were opened for women, notably in Warsaw's New Town. A 15th-century Benedictine foundation can be found in
Senieji Trakai, a village in Eastern
Lithuania.
Switzerland Kloster Rheinau was a Benedictine monastery in Rheinau in the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland, founded in about 778.
Einsiedeln Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Einsiedeln. The abbey of
Our Lady of the Angels was founded in 1120.
United Kingdom The
English Benedictine Congregation is the oldest of the nineteen Benedictine congregations. Through the influence of
Wilfrid,
Benedict Biscop, and
Dunstan, the Benedictine Rule spread rapidly, and in the North it was adopted in most of the monasteries that had been founded by the Celtic missionaries from Iona. Many of the episcopal sees of England were founded and governed by the Benedictines, and no fewer than nine of the old cathedrals were served by the black monks of the priories attached to them. During the
English Reformation, all
monasteries were dissolved and their lands confiscated by the Crown, forcing those who wished to continue in the monastic life to flee into exile on the Continent. During the 19th century English members of these communities were able to return to England.
St. Mildred's Priory, on the
Isle of Thanet,
Kent, was built in 1027 on the site of an abbey founded in 670 by the daughter of the first Christian
King of Kent. Currently the priory is home to a community of Benedictine nuns. Five of the most notable English abbeys are the Basilica of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as
Downside Abbey, The Abbey of St Edmund, King and Martyr commonly known as
Douai Abbey in Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berkshire,
Ealing Abbey in Ealing, West London, and
Worth Abbey.
Prinknash Abbey, used by Henry VIII as a hunting lodge, was officially returned to the Benedictines four hundred years later, in 1928. During the next few years, so-called Prinknash Park was used as a home until it was returned to the order.
St. Lawrence's Abbey in Ampleforth, Yorkshire was founded in 1802. In 1955, Ampleforth set up a daughter house, a priory at St. Louis, Missouri which became independent in 1973 and became
Saint Louis Abbey in its own right in 1989. Church, Wass, Yorkshire As of 2015, the English Congregation consists of three abbeys of nuns and ten abbeys of monks. Members of the congregation are found in England, Wales, the United States of America, Peru and Zimbabwe. In England there are also houses of the
Subiaco Cassinese Congregation: Farnborough, Prinknash, and Chilworth: the
Solesmes Congregation, Quarr and St Cecilia's on the Isle of Wight, as well as a diocesan monastery following the Rule of Saint Benedict: The Community of Our Lady of Glastonbury. Since the
Oxford Movement, there has also been a modest flourishing of Benedictine monasticism in the
Anglican Church and Protestant Churches. Anglican Benedictine Abbots are invited guests of the Benedictine Abbot Primate in Rome at Abbatial gatherings at Sant'Anselmo. In 1168 local Benedictine monks instigated the anti-semitic
blood libel of
Harold of Gloucester as a template for explaining child deaths. According to historian Joe Hillaby, the blood libel of Harold was crucially important because for the first time an unexplained child death occurring near the Easter festival was arbitrarily linked to Jews in the vicinity by local Christian churchmen: "they established a pattern quickly taken up elsewhere. Within three years the first ritual murder charge was made in France."
Monastic libraries in England The forty-eighth Rule of Saint Benedict prescribes extensive and habitual "holy reading" for the brethren. Three primary types of reading were done by the monks in medieval times. Monks would read privately during their personal time, as well as publicly during services and at mealtimes. In addition to these three mentioned in the Rule, monks would also read in the infirmary. Monasteries were thriving centers of education, with monks and nuns actively encouraged to learn and pray according to the
Benedictine Rule. Rule 38 states that 'these brothers' meals should usually be accompanied by reading, and that they were to eat and drink in silence while one read out loud. Benedictine monks were not allowed worldly possessions, thus necessitating the preservation and collection of sacred texts in monastic libraries for communal use. For the sake of convenience, the books in the monastery were housed in a few different places, namely the
sacristy, which contained books for the choir and other liturgical books, the
rectory, which housed books for public reading such as sermons and lives of the saints, and the
library, which contained the largest collection of books and was typically in the cloister. The first record of a monastic library in England is in
Canterbury. To assist with
Augustine of Canterbury's
English mission, Pope
Gregory the Great gave him nine books which included the Gregorian Bible in two volumes, the Psalter of Augustine, two copies of the
Gospels, two
martyrologies, an Exposition of the Gospels and Epistles, and a
Psalter.
Theodore of Tarsus brought Greek books to Canterbury more than seventy years later, when he founded a school for the study of Greek. By the time of his death in 1887, Wimmer had sent Benedictine monks to Kansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Illinois, and Colorado. Wimmer also asked for Benedictine
sisters to be sent to America by St. Walburg Convent in
Eichstätt, Bavaria. In 1852,
Sister Benedicta Riepp and two other sisters founded
St. Marys, Pennsylvania. Soon they would send sisters to Michigan, New Jersey, and Minnesota. ==Benedictine vows and life==