Benedictine Spirituality Shapes The Episcopal Church

Benedict of Nursia, Italy, was born to a noble family around 480 AD. I doubt he could have imagined how his life and teaching would shape the course of Western Christianity. Sent to study in Rome, he became disillusioned by the depravity of his fellow students. He abandoned his education to pursue an ascetic life, living as a hermit in a cave near Rome, at Subiaco.

After three years, he became convinced that solitary, hermit-like asceticism and escapism were not the answers he was seeking. Seeking a better way, he began establishing small monasteries where communal living, known as cenobitic monasticism, was expected. He established twelve small communities of 12 or less monks each. But, as time passed, Benedict, by force of local opposition, eventually left these monasteries behind to establish a larger single monastery at Monte Cassino , where he wrote The Rule, a treatise for creating a stable and enduring community.

The Rule emphasized obedience to the abbot and a balanced daily schedule of prayer and work (Ora et Labora). They integrated daily liturgical practices (Opus Dei, or the Work of God) and manual or intellectual labor. Due to this structure and stability, Benedictine monasteries became vital centers for the preservation of learning and culture throughout the middle ages, and were established throughout Europe. Benedict would pass away a few years after completing The Rule in 547 CE, but the legacy lives on.

When Thomas Cranmer set out to frame the Book of Common Prayer in the mid-sixteenth century (the 1540s and 1550s), he relied heavily on material that already existed, translating from Latin to English. But in establishing the Daily Office (Morning and Evening Prayer) he attempted to make available to all the people of England, a simplified Benedictine liturgical practice. As King Henry VIII disbanded the monasteries, Cranmer preserved this daily rhythm of prayer that had shaped England for centuries. The Prayer Book also offered a simple, ordered structure that emphasized the Common Good and daily practice, a Benedictine value, over extreme displays of asceticism, which continues to shape our prayer and liturgy today.