The Monastery

Our lives are very full, partly because we are a new foundation and there is much work to do, partly because the Rule establishes a rhythm of life in which prayer and work alternate with each other in a kind of stately dance.

The early monastic fathers were eager to respond to the Lord's injunction to pray without ceasing. When St. Benedict arranges the seven moments of public prayer during the day, he does so knowing that seven is a mystical number signifying completeness or totality. When he lays out the times for lectio divina, or the prayerful rumination on the Sacred Scriptures, his intention is that prayer become so much a part of a monk's life, part of his very breathing, that it wells up spontaneously within his heart.

The daily offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with solemn liturgical beauty, captures the heart of the monastic vocation. St. Benedict says to prefer nothing whatever to the love of Christ: where is the love of Christ more clearly shown than in his supreme gift of himself pro nobis on the Cross? St. Benedict says that the monk, when he makes his vows, is to place his vow chart on the altar at the Offertory, to be offered along with the sacrifice of Christ, to the Father. So in a very real sense, the daily offering of the Mass is a renewal of the monk's self-offering, of his Suscipe.

Work has always been a hallmark of the monk — any kind of work, manual, clerical and intellectual — but always done with care and reverence, since the tools of the monastery should be treated like the sacred vessels of the altar.

Our monastic life is lived out in community, in that school of charity where we learn to give of ourselves for the sake of our brother. Monks come in all shapes and sizes. In any given community there is often the whole range of personality types from one end of the spectrum to the other. Living together softens our rough edges. Long practice in patience and forgiveness leads to genuine affection for our fellow monks and an appreciation of their many fine qualities which may be quite different from our own.| top |

Summer

Winter

* From September 14th until Ash Wednesday, the Rule of St. Benedict prescribes that the monks eat only one meal at 3:00 PM. During Lent that meal is pushed back to 5:30 PM. An Italian breakfast (literally a breaking of the fast) is available all year round.

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Download our vespers recordings (Windows Media Files).

• Vespers Saturday July 15, 2006 (11.3MB WMF)
• Vespers Thursday July 27, 2006 (11.2MB WMF)
• Vespers Friday July 28, 2006 (10.2MB WMF)

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Fr. Cassian is the Prior and founder of the monastery. He was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Connecticut and became a monk at St. Meinrad Archabbey in 1979. Fr Cassian was ordained a priest in 1984, received his doctorate in liturgy in Rome in 1989 and became the president of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in 1992. He founded the monastery in a small apartment in Rome in 1998 and moved the community to Norcia in the year 2000 at the invitation of the Archbishop of Spoleto-Norcia. Besides all the normal activities of a superior Fr Cassian acts as novice master, giving formation to all the young monks.
Br Benedict comes from New Canaan, CT. He attended a high school run by monks, Portsmouth Abbey and then received a BA from the University of the South in Medieval Studies. After college Br Benedict decided to enter monastic life. He arrived in Norcia in 2001 and made solemn vows in 2005. Br Benedict studied philosophy in Rome at Santa Croce and will complete his theology at the ITI in Austria in May. He will be ordained a deacon on April 1 and a priest this Autumn. Br Benedict was appointed Subprior in 2006. He assists with formation of the novices and with development work.

The community of monks at the monastery of San Benedetto is made up of men from all over the United States, and one from Indonesia. The states presently represented are below. We welcome inquiries from countries in Europe and abroad and we are praying for our first Italian vocation.

Massachusetts
California
Connecticut
Michigan
Arizona
Missouri
Texas
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