See also Rule of Saint Benedict and Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

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The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict (in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, Confœderatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti) is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict

Order of Saint Benedict

The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

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Origin

The Benedictine Confederation is a union of monastic congregations that nevertheless retain their own autonomy, established by Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

 in his brief "Summum semper" (12 July 1893), subsequently approved by his successors. Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII

The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....

 explicitly ordered this union to be regulated by a "Lex Propria", which was later revised after the Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...

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Organization of the Benedictine Confederation

Most Benedictine Houses are loosely affiliated in twenty national or supra-national congregations. Each of these congregations elects its own Abbot President or "Abbot General". These presidents meet annually in the Synod of Presidents. Additionally, there is a meeting every four years of the Congress of Abbots, which is made up of all abbots and conventual priors, both of Houses that are members of congregations, as well as of those unaffiliated with any particular congregation. The Congress of Abbots elects the Abbot Primate, who serves a four-year term as the Confederation's representative and administrative head, although without direct jurisdiction of the individual Congregations.

The Confederation has its headquarters at Sant'Anselmo

Sant'Anselmo

Sant'Anselmo, named after the Italian saint and theologian, Anselm of Canterbury, is the home of the Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, seat of the Benedictine Confederation, and also hosts an Athenaeum, including the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, and the Philosophy and Theology faculties...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, which is the seat of the Abbot Primate and hosts the quadrennial Congress of Abbots. Sant'Anselmo is also home to the Benedictine Pontifical Athenaeum

Pontificio Ateneo Sant Anselmo

The Pontificio Ateneo Sant Anselmo is an educational institute of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome...

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Communities of Benedictine women are joined in sixty-one congregations and federations that are associated with the Confederation, although they do not have full membership. In November 2001 after a consultation process with all monasteries of Benedictine women around the world, it was decided to use the name Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum (CIB) to designate all communities of Benedictine women recognized by the Abbot Primate as such and listed in the Catalogus Monasteriorum O.S.B.

The first attempt to group Benedictine monasteries into national Congregations was at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Only the English Benedictine Congregation

English Benedictine Congregation

The English Benedictine Congregation comprises autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the 21 congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation....

 survives from this early attempt at centralisation, and in historical reality even this Congregation is a 17th century foundation although it was given juridical continuity with the medieval English Congregation by the Papal Bull "Plantata" of 1633. Primacy of honour is given to the Cassinese Congregation (which had its origin in the Congregation of Santa Giustina, Padua, founded in 1408 by Lodovico Barbo), since this Congregation includes Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...

 Abbey, where St Benedict wrote his Rule and was buried (although Fleury Abbey

Fleury Abbey

Fleury Abbey in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, France, founded about 640, is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, which posseses the relics of St. Benedict of Nursia. Its site on the banks of the Loire has always made it easily accessible from Orléans, a center of...

 also claims to house the remains of the saint).

The Benedictines suffered badly in the anti-clerical atmosphere at the time of Napoleon and the modern Congregations were mostly founded in the 19th century when monasticism was revived. The majority are essentially national groupings, although the Subiaco Congregation (originally the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance) has from the first been truly international because of its interest in foreign mission.

Since the time of the Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

, there have been independent Benedictine communities in the Protestant (especially Anglican) traditions which maintain official friendly relations with the Benedictine Confederation, although they are not formally linked with it or its congregations.

Throughout the Benedictine confederation and its subdivisions, independence and autonomy among communities are uniquely valued; too highly for Pope Pius XI

Pope Pius XI

Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

, who complained that the largely nominal confederation was "an order without order." The basic unit has always been the individual abbey, rather than the Congregation. This explains why some houses (e.g. Monte Cassino, Subiaco, Saint Paul-outside-the-Walls (Rome), Montserrat and Pannonhalma) have unbroken histories of more than a thousand years while the Congregations to which they belong are more recent.

This balance between autonomy and belonging is one of the distinguishing features of the Benedictine Confederation, and brings with it both strengths and weaknesses. One immediate consequence is that there is often great diversity of observance even between houses of the same Congregation: in liturgy, timetable, pastoral involvement and habit.

Congregations of Benedictine Monks

The present Confederation of Congregations of Monasteries of the Order of Saint Benedict, officially, the "Benedictine Confederation," of monks, consists of the following congregations in the order given in the Catalogus Monasteriorum OSB (dates in brackets are those of the foundation of the congregations – Primacy of honour is given to the Cassinese Congregation, though the English Congregation is the oldest, because Monte Cassino was the original Abbey of St. Benedict himself. (The older Camaldolese and Sylvestrine congregations joined the Confederation only in the mid-20th century.):

1. Cassinese Benedictine Congregation (1408)
2. English Congregation
   English Benedictine Congregation
   The English Benedictine Congregation comprises autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the 21 congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation....
   
    (1336)
3. Hungarian Congregation (1514)
4. Swiss Congregation
   Swiss Congregation
   The Swiss Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation is a grouping of Benedictine monasteries in Switzerland or with significant historical Swiss connections.-Foundation:...
   
    (1602)
5. Austrian Congregation
   Austrian Congregation
   The Austrian Congregation is a congregation of Benedictine monasteries situated in Austria, within the Benedictine Confederation.-History:The Congregation was founded on 3 August 1625 by Pope Urban VIII, and consisted of eleven Benedictine monasteries in Austria:*Altenburg Abbey*Garsten...
   
    (1625)
6. Bavarian Congregation
   Bavarian Congregation
   The Bavarian Congregation is a congregation of the Benedictine Confederation consisting of monasteries in Bavaria, Germany.It was founded on 26 August 1684 by the Blessed Pope Innocent XI .-First Congregation:...
   
    (1684)
7. Brazilian Congregation (1827)
8. Solesmes Congregation
   Solesmes Congregation
   The Solesmes Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation was founded in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI as the French Benedictine Congregation, with the newly reopened monastery of Solesmes Abbey under Dom Prosper Guéranger at its head. The Congregation's first nunnery was St...
   
    (1837)
9. American-Cassinese Congregation
   American-Cassinese Congregation
   Founded 1855, the American-Cassinese Congregation is a Catholic association of Benedictine monasteries in the Benedictine ConfederationThe Congregation consists of 20 independent monasteries with houses or dependencies in 16 of the United States, Puerto Rico, and in six other countries on three...
   
    (1855)
10. Subiaco Congregation
    Subiaco Congregation
    The Subiaco Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses within the Benedictine Confederation. It was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro Franceso Casaretto, O.S.B., and received final approval by the Holy See in 1872.- History :Casaretto from the age of seventeen...
    
     (1872)
11. Beuronese Congregation
    Beuronese Congregation
    The Beuronese Congregation, or Beuron Congregation, is a union of mostly German or German-speaking religious houses of both monks and nuns within the Benedictine Confederation...
    
     (1873)
12. Swiss American Congregation (1881)
13. Ottilien Congregation
    Ottilien Congregation
    The Ottilien Congregation, often also known as the St. Ottilien Congregation and as the Missionary Benedictines, is a congregation of religious houses within the Benedictine Confederation, the aim of which is to combine the Benedictine way of life with activity in the mission field.-History:The...
    
     (1884)
14. Annunciation Congregation (1920)
15. Slav Congregation (1945) (suspended by the Holy See in 1969)
16. Olivetan Congregation (1319)
17. Vallombrosian Congregation (1036)
18. Camaldolese Congregation (980)
19. Sylvestrine Congregation (1231)
20. Cono-Sur Congregation (1976)

List of the Abbots Primates of the Benedictine Confederation

• 1893–1913: Hildebrand de Hemptinne
• 1913–1947: Fidelis von Stotzingen
• 1947–1959: Bernhard Kaelin
• 1959–1967: Benno Gut
  Benno Gut
  Benno Walter Gut, OSB was a Swiss Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship in the Roman Curia from 1969 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1967.-Biography:Born in Reiden, Walter Gut entered the Order of Saint Benedict...
  
  
• 1967–1977: Rembert Weakland
  Rembert Weakland
  Rembert George Weakland was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977 to 2002. He is the author of A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop, which explores Church reform issues, his homosexuality, and the child abuse crisis....
  
  

• 1977–1992: Victor Dammertz
• 1992–1995: Jerome Theisen
• 1996–2000: Marcel Rooney
  Marcel Rooney
  Marcel Rooney, O.S.B. was the eighth Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation. He was born on 20 September 1937, professed solemn vows 12 September 1958 and was ordained to the priesthood on 21 September 1963...
  
  
• 2000–present: Notker Wolf
  Notker Wolf
  Notker Wolf OSB is the current Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was elected to his position as Abbot Primate in 2000, succeeding Marcel Rooney. He lives at the Confederation's headquarters at Sant'Anselmo in Rome. The position is largely honorary...
  
  

See also

• Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face

External links

• The Benedictine Confederation of Congregations of Monasteries of the Order of Saint Benedict (official website).
• Lex Propria/Proper Law of The Benedictine Confederation Latin, Italian or English.
• Luke Dysinger OSB, The Benedictine Family Tree with an introduction to the Benedictine Confederation.