Benedictine monastery

As a Benedictine a fixed monastic community of monks ( priests and laity ) or nuns of the Benedictine order is called.

Monastery, convent and pen

The term of the Benedictine monastery is largely identical to the Benedictine abbey - a monastery community whose chief is an abbot, which usually is a Prior to the side.

In contrast, stands at the terminus of the Benedictine Monastery of the most complex and the Church in the foreground (except for previous, destroyed or abandoned branches) includes, however, the existence of a monastic community.

Most exerts a pen and pastoral activities in the immediate vicinity or environment from ( care of parishes and municipalities, etc. ) and often results in a school. Many of the latter have an excellent reputation and are traditionally a center of culture and often also of science - for example by observatories and other observatories, theater groups or offers adult education and recreation.

Building complex and forms of pieties

The location of a pen - and usually also of monasteries and abbeys - includes

  • The church as the center of the Benedictine piety and prayer. It is in many cases the local church is available and is usually a place, Gregorian Chant and other forms of church music to be maintained at that.
  • The monastery building with the exam, housing units for members of the Order, dining and common rooms
  • Each locally different additional premises (eg guest rooms, temporary monastery, music school, parish center )
  • The library, in some cases pharmacy, herb garden, etc.

Some abbeys also maintain particular forms of printing and the literary- cultural-historical sciences, such as the abbey Ettal (Bavaria), and other objects of the humanities and natural science.

Culture and education

This powerful prayer and cultural tradition is related to the specific precepts, and the history of the Benedictine together -

  • The order Ora et labora ( pray and work! )
  • And the stabilitas loci ( the monk remains generally in the monastery where he has passed his vows ).

The Order of Saint Benedict (abbreviation OSB ) was the first to be engaged to a greater extent in Europe, and is therefore historically with the settlement ( after the Great Migration, as in monasteries often civil settlements were established ), with the mission, often reclamation ( land clearing, etc.) and almost always closely linked with tasks of education and of the educational mission.

Since medieval times the priests were the only ones who could read and write, the up to now standing in high esteem education of the Order yielded almost by itself

The art and music tradition will be continued in some abandoned monasteries, partly in the form of festivals or music competitions. A well-known example is the Church of Ossiach (Carinthia ) and its summer concerts (organ).

The same as for Benedictine monasteries also applies to the monasteries of the Benedictine and Cistercian Order which emerged from the Benedictines.

Benedictine monasteries in the German speaking

In Germany there are 30 branches of the Benedictines, 16 in Austria, 7 in Switzerland, 2 in South Tyrol. There are also those of the Benedictine and Cistercian / inside.

Pictures of Benedictine monastery

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