A Benedictine vow ceremony

Some of the Labro artmonks recently visited the relatively new Benedictine monastery at Norcia, where an international group of monks sings the entire chant office in Latin every day.

The Benedictines are not a centralized order. Rather, each house enjoys a considerable degree of autonomy, since it is the abbot who interprets the Rule for that particular community. For this reason there can be a great deal of difference from one monastery to another: traditions form based on history, culture and local circumstances.

The Monastero di San Benedetto in Norcia is unique for two reasons:

1. It was founded from scratch in 1998 without being conditioned by previous historical circumstances.
2. It is located at the birthplace of St. Benedict, and therefore is in a privileged position to draw from the sources of Benedictine spirituality, namely the Rule of St. Benedict as well as the pre-Benedictine monastic tradition. The Vatican II document on Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, urges religious to return to the spirit of the founder, and that’s what we are trying to do.

One of the monks mentioned that he put his vow ceremony on Youtube, so here it is: