Peter Costello
Saint Benedict, as
painted by Fra Angelico. In the School of Saint Benedict: Benedictine Spirituality for Every Christian by Dom Xavier Perrin OSB (Gracewing, €11.99/£9.99)
The author of this little book is currently the superior of Quarr Abbey, beautifully situated overlooking the sea on the Isle of Wight. This was where the Benedictines of Solesmes in Sarthe in the Pays de Loire (where the Benedictines were re-established after the French revolution) were exiles to between 1901 and 1922. However he was born in France and joined the Benedictines at Sainte Anne de Kergonan. He was appointed Prior Administrator and has been the superior of Quarr since 2013.
This book, first published in French back 2020, has now been translated into English by two writers associated with Quarr Abbey. It is intended as a straightforward, uncomplicated account aimed at a general audience of lay people. Simply and clearly he presents what a reader would want to know.
It is in three parts. He begins properly enough with a series of chapters recounting the life and vocation of St Benedict, and the creation of the original rule.
In presents a necessarily elementary history of the Benedictine family since the 6th century, which moves from the Venerable Bede, through other notable figures down to the martyrs of the Atlas Mountains, the monks of Tibhirine, in 1996. This section presents the great variety of vocations encompassed by the Benedictine ideal.
Preparatory
But these sections are preparatory to the third section, which represents the core of the book I suspect for Dom Xavier. He discusses how it is possible to follow the spirit of St Benedict while living in the world.
The world of work and life in the world today seems so inimical to any kind of spiritual or even intellectual pursuit that living according to any kind of inner rule where so many are, in effect, enslaved by global companies in one way or another seems quite impossible. But Dom Xavier proposes how in fact it can be done, concluding indeed with joy in Christ. This book itself is of a size and nature that facilitates this approach.
The author himself, born in Tours, studied French literature at the University of Rennes in Brittany and the history of art at the Sorbonne. His whole vocation is reared on this broad foundation of Western culture, which he continues to foster by encouraging the continuation of Gregorian Chant.
The following passage from the conclusion to his book provides Dom Xavier with an opportunity to sum up not only his theme, but the whole long Benedictine tradition.
“Putting oneself in the school of Saint Benedict, being inspired by his spirit – or, as we say, by his spirituality – even when living in the world, is possible if we follow the advice Pope Francis expressed in a forceful and original way in his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel at the beginning of his pontificate. ‘Time, he declares there, ‘is greater than space’. Giving priority to time, means, in the Pope’s words, being concerned about ‘initiating processes rather than possessing spaces’.
Building
Following Saint Benedict, then, is not so much about building a monastery as about initiating a process of conversion which has its source in the powerful graces of our baptism and its destination in our heavenly homeland. And stability in the ‘workshop of the spiritual craft’ defines a ‘space’ which is very important for monks and nuns, guaranteeing them the solitude and silence where their particular vocation can flourish. But the Benedictine ‘spiritual craft’ cannot be reduced to the possession of a space, however precious a monastery may be as a symbol of the mystery of the of Christ and the Church. This craft involves an evangelical process of configuration to Christ, characterised especially by divine praise and fraternal communion.”
And from elsewhere in the book we will already have gathered that by fraternity he includes sorority. There is a place for all in the Benedictine world.