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PPforMonTues_April27-8Benedictines_CatholicStuff.pptxTHE BENEDICTINES
Benedictine order: intro
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
About 70 years after the fall of Rome, one finds Benedict of Nursia .
He was born around 480 ce and died about 547.
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
You know that the Desert Fathers and Mothers have been around since the 200’s…
… so the idea of Christian men and women living in prayer and solitude is already centuries old
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
A monk named Pachomius is credited with the idea of those Desert Hermits…
…forming into groups and living in community.
So by the time of St Benedict, the idea was a familiar one.
Benedict really made it work, though. He had a lot of common sense, so his ideas about how to live in communities lasted!
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
His first abbey was founded in Italy in 529.
By 708, there were also Benedictine monasteries in France!
The following slide shows the monastery of Mont Saint Michel.
Mont Saint Michel; Wikipedia; 5 July 2011; Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0
Mont Saint Michel; 20 11 2005 Wikipedia
Mont Saint Michel 15 09 2011 Ввласенко Wikipedia
Cloister inside Mont Saint Michel 9 9 2008 Wikipedia
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
One of the main “purposes” or “gifts” or “charisms” of the Benedictine Monastery was HOSPITALITY.
Sometimes Benedictine monasteries even served as hospitals or medical centers (“such as they were”) in medieval times.
Imagine wandering on foot, cold and hungry, and exhausted, with no Motels in existence…and then seeing ahead of you..
…all lit up of course with candles and fire-places, instead of gas….
What a comfort that would be!
They would take you in…and you could spend the night (HOSPITALITY) and feed you…
..and they had herbs and salves to give you, if you were feeling ill or had blisters.
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
In the 900’’s, another French abbey, at Cluny, was founded.
In the 1100’s, it was consecrated by the Pope and had become very powerful.
(the next slide shows where Cluny is located)
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=7gRWEEGY&id=
472A6BF0DCAE757E31D01EF93C1603457BE41771&thid=
OIP.7gRWEEGYa4VSc5Y08VuEQgHaGJ&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.greyworldnomads.com
%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2018%2f01%2fWhere-is-Cluny-Abbey-on-map-France
.jpg&exph=570&expw=686&q=cluny+monasteries+map&simid=608003072965085976&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0
In the following slide, you can see how all the IMPORTANT MEN OF POWER were gathered around the consecration (“blessing”) of this monastic complex.
Again: the Church is involved with culture, money, and power.
Consecration of Cluny by Urban II in 1100’s (Bibliotheque Nationale) Wikipedia
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
The original Church from the 1100’s was destroyed. Additional parts were built up over centuries.
Here is a model of how the whole thing looked in medieval times.
A MODEL of how Cluny looked in medieval times, view from south. The semi-detached
building on the LEFT is narrower…and is the “ante-church,” with Barabans towers. The
gold-ish white roof is the tower which survives today (south transept tower). Sacred destinations.com
Here is a picture of the FLOOR of that narrow part on the left…the ante-church…
…you can still see where the pillar columns remain, like broken tree trunks.
“CLUNY
Site of the huge antechurch or
porch (1130-90), in which the
foundations of pillars can be seen,
viewed from the west.”
http://www.sacred-destinations.com
/france/cluny-abbey-photos/slides
/xti_1625 (06 02 08; 4 pm)
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
In the same picture, on the right hand side, you can still see the only surviving (goldish-white on the model) south transept tower.
“CLUNY
Site of the huge antechurch or
porch (1130-90), in which the
foundations of pillars can be seen,
viewed from the west.”
http://www.sacred-destinations.com
/france/cluny-abbey-photos/slides
/xti_1625 (06 02 08; 4 pm)
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
Here is another close-up view of that south transept tower. It was built in 1088 – 1130…
….so it was built even before the ante-church!
It is the only thing that remains of the original abbey.
A) The Benedictines: INTRO
Cluny became so powerful that it had hundreds of smaller monasteries under its “administration” or “wing,” so to speak.
A WHOLE NETWORK OF MONKS AND NUNS!!!
These dependent monasteries were called “priories,” and they spread across Europe!
Some people said that the abbot---or leader--- of Cluny was…
ALMOST (but not quite) as powerful as the Pope!
