Of Benedict and His Monks

Founded in 1999 by twelve American, Canadian, and French monks from Notre-Dame de Fontgombault, they now number more than 60 monks and novices.

After several years’ hiatus, work has resumed on their great Romanesque-style monastery in the Ozark foothills of Oklahoma.

The construction of the Church apse and the first phase of the bell tower is now almost halfway complete. All the concrete has been poured, and now the masons are busy building the circular chapels and will soon raise the transepts of the Church to their definitive height. The project should be completed in the late fall, and enlarge the upper Church for our monastic liturgical ceremonies.

Clear Creek construction, May 2016

I prayed with one of their rosaries ever since my first Camino.

It cheers me that since the year 2000, Saint Benedict’s own home town of Norcia is once more home to a Benedictine abbey.

These monks celebrate the sacraments in utroque usu, that is, according to both the Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. They are kind enough to post audio clips of their daily Mass, Lauds, and Vespers on their blog.

Their chant album “Benedicta” is a worldwide best-seller and has been on the charts for 47 weeks and counting.

And I look forward to sampling their beer at some point! What’s not to like about brewmonks? Birra Nursia is now available in the USA.

These men are finding the quiet spaces in the world to listen for the whispering voice of God (1 Kings 19:11-13).

A group of American ex-patriot monks have founded Silverstream Priory in Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland in 2012.

Their primary mission is the liturgy and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament¹, though I’m fairly well impressed by the beauty and dignity of the printed materials they produce.

The community is not large, but that seems to be part of the plan.

We do not aspire to become a grand abbey. Our aim is to grow to the size of a large family, that is between twenty and thirty members. A diversity of talents and aptitudes are needed: manual, intellectual, artistic, and technological.

Abbatial Blessing of Abbot Jeremy at Mount Angel

It has recently enjoyed something of a renaissance:

The number of postulants, novices, and junior professed monks preparing for a life in the monastery is one of the largest in many years at the Abbey.

The number of fully professed monks in the Abbey community is 44, with a few serving in parishes and others no longer active due to illness or age. The twenty-one monks in various stages of formation represent over 40 percent of the total community.

“This is a new chapter in our history – a new abbot, new monks, all in a new century.”
(Fr. Odo Recker, O.S.B., Vocations Director)

Mount Angel is the site of one of the more important seminaries in the United States. They recently celebrated the seminary’s 127th Commencement Exercises.