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The Order of Saint BenedictWhat Was NewOctober, November, and December 2008
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December 2008
The Holy Father Invites Abbots and Abbesses to Monte Cassino, 2009
Vittorio Buongiorno writes in Il Messagero (9 December 2008) that the Holy Father intends to visit the national shrine of Saint Benedict on 24 May 2009. Dom Pietro Vittorell OSB, Archabbot of Montecassino, announced on 8 December that the Holy Father would preside at services on Ascension Sunday at the Polish Cemetery. The date marks the 65th anniversary of the destruction of the shrine by aerial bombing.
The Holy Father invites all Benedictine abbots and abbesses to pray with him at the tomb of the Founder, Saint Benedict of Norcia, 480-547. Celebrating Vespers of the Ascension with the Holy Father will be a "unique moment for the Benedictine Order," said the archabbot. The Holy Father will also inaugurate the House of Charity for family services. The archabbot's announcement elicited a peal of bells for 15 minutes in all the parishes of Cassino.
Abbot Thomas Retires at Blue Cloud Abbey
On 26 November, Abbot Thomas Hillenbrand OSB, 69, announced his resignation as the fourth Abbot of Blue Cloud Abbey, Marvin, South Dakota. The resignation will become effective on 1 January 2009. Abbot Thomas was elected and blessed on 9 October 1992. Abbot Peter Eberle OSB, President of the Swiss-American Congregation, will be be at Blue Cloud on 9 January 2009 to help the monks discern whether to elect an abbot or to ask him for a temporary administrator. Blue Cloud was founded from St. Meinrad Archabbey, 24 June 1950.
RB in Romanian
The OSB website is privileged to make available the first complete translation from Latin into Romanian of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Marius Ivascu, 27, studied Latin and Greek at the University in his home town, Timisoara. He came to know the Benedictines in the Netherlands, at Vaals Abbey, where the monks warmly welcomed the Orthodox student several times. Although an abridged version of the Life and Miracles of Saint Benedict in Romanian, translated from the Greek version, has been available, Ivascu has also translated from Latin all of Book II from St. Gregory the Great's Dialogues.
November 2008
Dom Ephrem Carr OSB STD Elected President of PIL
Abbot Primate Dr. Notker Wolf OSB has confirmed the election of Professor Ephrem Carr OSB, 67, by the faculty of liturgy who met on 13 November 2008. Father Ephrem will serve a four-year term as President of the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy, Sant'Anselmo, Rome. On 8 December 2008 he succeeds P. Juan Javier Flores Arcas OSB in office. Fr. Ephrem professed vows at Saint Meinrad Archabbey in 1963 and became a priest in 1967. Professor Carr specializes in the primitive church, eastern liturgies and Syrian monasticism at Sant'Anselmo. Ha also teaches pre-Nicean patristic Greek at the Augustinianum, and the history of the primitive church at the Beda College.
+ Sister Jeremy Hall OSB
S. Jeremy (Evelyn) Hall OSB, 90, died at St. Scholastica Convent, St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday, 14 November 2008. Alhtough she was for most of her life an educator, an "extensive part of S. Jeremy's ministry was in directing retreats and giving spiritual direction to many religious communities and individuals, especially in the 22 years she lived as a hermit on the grounds of Saint Benedict's Monastery, St. Joseph, MN.
"S. Jeremy was a prolific writer, and produced many letters, articles, meditations and books. Her books were The Full Stature of Christ: The Ecclesiology of Virgil Michel, OSB, 1976; texts to accompany the O Antiphons, 1976; and Silence, Solitude, Simplicity: A Hermit's Love Affair With a Noisy, Crowded and Complicated World," Liturgical Press, 2007 (Obituary).
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 19, at Sacred Heart Chapel, Saint Benedict's Monastery. Visitation begins at 9 a.m. until the time of the funeral.
Mount Calvary Retreat Destroyed by Fire
"The Montecito wildfire has destroyed historic Mount Calvary Retreat House, Santa Barbara County, California. Wind and topography apparently shifted the fire in a more north-westerly direction, sending the flames up over Gibraltar Road in the vicinity of Mount Calvary Retreat. ...Mount Calvary felt the fury of the massive firestorm that passed over the crest. Within minutes the fire blew over the top of the Retreat and forced its way down into Rattlesnake Canyon" (Santa Barbara Indepenent).
The residents and staff are safe following evacuation, said Nancy Bullock, program director for Mount Calvary. "Many of the furnishings inside the 20,000-square-foot retreat house were priceless. 'It's in the millions of dollars. I just don't know what to say,' she said. 'There was the beautiful gold altar, from 17th century South America, and the 1652 painting of Jesus healing the paralytic, as well as the painting of our founder, as well as the brothers' personal belongings" (Bob Williams, Episcopal News Service, Nov. 14, 2008).
Six monks who follow the Rule of Benedict at the Mount Calvary Monastery were evacuated at about 7:30 p.m. on 13 November to St. Mary's Retreat House, run by the Episcopal Order of Sisters of the Holy Nativity, according to Brother Nicholas Radelmiller, OHC prior. When he left, he "carried a century-old painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe under his arm. Others grabbed two 600-year-old paintings, a cash box, laptops and a change of clothes" (International Herald Tribune, Nov. 19, 2008).
The Order of the Holy Cross, based in West Park, N.Y., founded Mount Calvary Monastery and Retreat House in 1947.
Serna Named Administrator for Glastonbury
Abbot Peter Eberle OSB, Abbot-President of the Swiss-American Congregation, has named Father Mark Serna OSB Administrator of Glastonbury Abbey, Hingham, Massachusetts, for a two-year term beginning in January 2009. Father Mark, 54, served as Abbot of Portsmouth Abbey, Rhode Island, from 1991 to 2005. He continues as Chair of the Board of North-American Monastic Interfaith Dialogue (MID).
Abbot President Peter made the appointment after consultation with Abbot Caedon Holmes OSB and the community at Portsmouth. Abbot Nicholas Morcone OSB, second abbot of Glastonbury (1986-2008), resigned on 14 September 2008. The chapter of Glastonbury requested an administrator for two years before proceeding to the election of an abbot. As Prior, Father Timothy Joyce OSB continues to be superior as the temporary administrator until Father Mark's formal installation.
October 2008
Glenstal Chooses a Leader
On Thursday, 30 October, the monks of Glenstal Abbey, Limerick, Ireland, postulated the election of Dom Patrick Hederman OSB, 64. If the election is confirmed, Brother Patrick must submit to ordination as a priest before receiving the abbatial blessing.
Although canon 688.1 reads, "In itself, the state of consecrated life is neither clerical nor lay," the Holy See recognizes Benedictine monasteries of men as clerical institutes. "A clerical institute is one which, by reason of the end or purpose intended by the founder, or by reason of lawful tradition, is under the governance of clerics, presupposes the exercise of sacred orders, and is recognized as such by ecclesiastical authority" (Canon 588.2).
+ S. Carla Mitchell OSB, 104
Sister Carla Mitchell, 104, of Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, Indiana, died October 27 in the monastery's Hildegard Health Center. Sister Carla was likely the only Benedictine sister in the United States to reach the 85th anniversary of monastic profession. She observed that jubilee milestone in October 2007. She was also the longest-living Ferdinand Benedictine sister.
Sister Carla was born on December 21, 1903, in Evansville, Indiana. She entered the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand in 1921 and made her first profession of vows in 1922 and her final profession in 1925. For almost 80 years, Sister Carla taught at schools in Arizona, California, Indiana, Louisiana, and North Dakota at all levels of education from kindergarten to university and as part of prison ministry. She had over 40 poems published in the International Library of Poets and wrote a history of the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand for their 125th anniversary in 1992. Her passion for learning began early in life, probably when her grandfather taught her to read before she started school, and continued throughout her life -- she began studying Greek vocabulary cards, using tapes and a magnifying machine because of her limited sight, after she reached 100 years. Sister Carla's advice for living a long, happy life was: �You have to see the good in every thing and every person and have a positive attitude in life.�
Bishop Jabalé OSB Retires
Most Rev. John Mark Jabalé OSB, 75, retired as Bishop of Menevia, Wales, UK, 16 October 2008. Bishop Thomas Matthew Burns SM was named to succeed him. Rt. Rev. Dom John Mark OSB had been abbot of Belmont Abbey since 1 September 1993 before being named Coadjutor Bishop of Menevia, 7 November 2000. He succeeded to the see 12 June 2001.
+ Abbot Placid Spearritt OSB
The sixth abbot of New Norcia, Western Australia, Abbot Placid Spearritt OSB, 75, died unexpectedly on Saturday, 4 October, while on retreat at Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire, UK. After attending the Congress of Abbots in Rome, Abbot Placid travelled to visit friends and relatives in the UK. Although Selwyn Spearritt was born an Anglican in Queensland, he became a Catholic at the age of 22. He joined Ampleforth Abbey where he was given the religious name Placid and studied for the next eight years, doing post-graduate work at the Catholic University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He became Prior of Ampleforth in 1979 and Prior of New Norcia in 1983. The monks of New Norcia (Subiaco Congregation) postulated him abbot on 29 January 1997. The abbatial blessing took place on 1 March 1997. "Abbot Placid's 25 years of humble prayer, work and service have guided New Norcia into this new era, making a significant contribution to the Church and wider community of WA," said Prior Dom Christopher Power OSB (The West Australian).
+ Father Werner OSB Dies at 94
Father Werner Papeians de Morchoven OSB, a former missionary to China who was one of the founders of St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, California, in the mid-1950s, died Tuesday, 30 September 2008. The son of a judge and one of nine children, Papeians de Morchoven was born 28 January 1914, in Brugge, Belgium. During his more than five decades at the abbey, Papeians de Morchoven served as ranch manager from 1957 to 1991, treasurer from 1956 to 1980 and chairman of the fundraising fall festival from 1969 to 1992. At various times, his other duties included marketing the ceramic angels and saints the abbey produces and managing the gift shop. He also served for many years as auxiliary chaplain at Edwards Air Force Base. Father Eleutherius Winance OSB, 99, is now the sole surviving founding monk of St. Andrew's Abbey. The monks celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m., Saturday, 4 October, at the abbey.
Monks Edit Treatise
Fathers James Leachman OSB and Daniel McCarthy OSB have edited Appreciating the Collect: An Irenic Methodology. In Appreciating the Collect, scholars from four continents introduce the established textual critical apparatus of Rome's Sant'Anselmo Pontifical Institute of Liturgy and apply this methodology to specific collects of the 2002 Roman Missal. Orders placed before the end of October are eligible for a promotional discount from The Abbey Shop.
Dom Placidus Wolter OSB Commemorated
The monks of Beuron Archabbey marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Dom Placidus Wolter OSB, 1828-1908. Dom Placidus was the second archabbot of Beuron who consolidated its founding. In 1890 he succeeded his brother, Dom Maurus Wolter OSB, the founding archabbot. Together they had professed vows as Benedictine monks at St. Paul Outside the Walls monastery in Rome. They returned to Germany and with the support of Dowager Princess Katharina von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen they re-settled the empty Augustinian monastery of Beuron. Exhibitions at Beuron and Bonn, their birthplace, celebrate the life and work of the Wolter brothers. The exhibition at Beuron Archabbey is accompanied by the book, Erzabt Placidus Wolter 1828-1908.
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