Benedictines, the general name of all the monks and nuns following the rule of St Benedict (480-543). He founded his first twelve monasteries at Subiaco, near Rome; thence he passed to Monte Cassino, near Naples, where he wrote his Rule, and founded the abbey which is still famous. In his lifetime his disciple, St Placid, spread his order in Sicily; and St Maurus in France. St Gregory the Great was the first (590-604) of the fifty Benedictines who have occupied the papal throne, a list which includes such names as St Leo IV., St Gregory VII., and St Pius VII., and which ends with Gregory XVI., the predecessor of Pius IX. St Augustine, the disciple of Gregory the Great, brought the Benedictine rule to England along with the Christian faith, and became the first of a long list of Benedictine archbishops of Canterbury. The English Benedictine, St Boniface, preached the faith in Germany, and founded there the great abbey of Fulda. Ansgar, the apostle of Denmark; Willibrord, of the Frisians and Dutch; Adalbert, of the Bohemians; and Casimir, of the Poles, were all Benedictines. Bede and Anselm in England; Isidore, Leander, and Ildefonsus in Spain; Peter Damiani in Italy, and Bernard in France, are names which illustrate the hold this order had upon the teaching of the Catholic church. As early as 1354 the order had numbered 24 popes, 200 cardinals, 7000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops, 1560 canonised saints, and 5000 holy persons worthy of canonisation, a number since increased to 40,000. It had possessed 37,000 monasteries, 20 emperors, 10 empresses, 47 kings, 50 queens, and an immense number of royal and noble persons. In the 15th century there were 15,107 Benedictine monasteries. The Reformation left not more than 5000; and at the present day the list would not exceed 800.
The Benedictines have been variously grouped together into 'orders' and 'congregations,' named after some principal abbey in which they may have taken their rise, or after some patron saint or country. The first of these sprang from the abbey of Clugny in 910. From Cîteaux, under the Englishman St Stephen, came the Cistercians (1098). In Italy St Romuald founded the order of Camaldoli (1009); St John Gualbert that of Vallombrosa (1070); St William that of Monte Vergine (1119). The Silvestrines (1231) and Celestines (1274) bear the names of their founders; the Olivetans (1319) that of their first abbey. The congregation of Monte Cassino was formed by the union of several abbeys in Italy in 1415, and still exists, though much shorn of its strength. The great abbey of St Paul's in Rome belongs to it. The principal congregation in Germany was that of Bursfeld, which disappeared with the 18th century; but in 1868 the congregation of Beuron arose in the Prussian empire, and now counts four flourishing abbeys. In the Austrian empire there still exist twenty out of a much larger number of independent abbeys, of which many date back to the 8th and 9th centuries. The principal are Salzburg, Melk, Krems, and Martensberg in Hungary. In 1712 a congregation of Armenian Benedictines established itself at San Lazzaro, near Venice, under the name of their founder Mechitar, and still continues a source of religion and learning for its mother-country. In France the congregation of St Vanne was erected in 1600; along with that of Tiron it was absorbed into that of St Maur in 1627 (see MAURISTS).
The Revolution of 1792 swept all away, but in 1837 D. Gueranger founded the 'French Congregation' at Solesmes, and it now reckons three abbeys. In accordance with a Bull of the Lateran Council (1215), which commanded Benedictines to unite together into congregations, eleven Scottish monasteries which had been founded at different dates in various parts of Germany were erected into one body. The most important were Würzburg, Erfurt, and Vienna. Of these none now exist. The English congregation was founded in 1300 by the union of all the English monasteries then existing. It included, among the 113 numbered by Tanner, all the greater abbeys and cathedrals, and four other abbeys which have since become cathedrals of England. It was despoiled at the Reformation, and its few surviving members took refuge and multiplied abroad, whence they returned at the French Revolution. In Scotland the principal Benedictine monasteries were Iona, Dunfermline, Colindown, Kelso, Arbroath, Paisley, Melrose, Kilwinning, and Lindores. In the United Kingdom in 1837 there were eight Benedictine monasteries for men, and the same number for women, together with a large number of parish churches served by Benedictines. The abbey of Fort Augustus, the only one in Scotland, was founded 1878, and in it is perpetuated whatever remained of the Scottish abbey at Ratisbon. During the present century the order has spread widely in the United States, where there are eight large abbeys and a number of smaller establishments. The mother-abbey of St Vincent's, Pennsylvania, numbers 130 monks. Monasteries have been established also in Australia, one among the aborigines, and in New Zealand; and the suppressed congregation of Valladolid and Montserrat in Spain have begun to re-establish themselves. In 1851 a new congregation was erected under the presidency of the abbey of Subiaco, one of the original foundations of St Benedict, and has widely propagated.
The Rule of St Benedict is a modification of that of the eastern ascetics, St Basil, Cassian, &c. It was the first to introduce Stability, or the binding of the monk to a permanent abode in a monastery, and in the practice of monastic life till death. This is the first of the Benedictine's three vows; the second is Conversion of Manners—i.e. the striving after perfection of life; and the third, Obedience according to the Rule, by the tenor of which the monk is bound to chastity, to the renunciation of private property, to retirement from the world, to the daily and public solemnisation of the divine office, and to a life of frugality and labour under filial obedience to the abbot. Hospitality and the other works of mercy, corporal and spiritual, are strongly inculcated in the rule, and among these, Benedictine monks have always given a high place to the work of education and instruction in worldly and religious learning. Both these still form the principal subjects of their employment. From the days of Charlemagne to the 12th or 13th century, the Benedictine monasteries were almost the only repositories of learning; the literary labours of the Maurists in the 18th century are proverbial, and to this day it would be difficult to find a Benedictine monastery without at least its 'internal' school of philosophy and theology. The modern congregation of Beuron is famous for its school of art.
The Benedictine habit consists of a tunic and Scapular (q.v.), over which is worn a long full gown called a cowl, with a hood to cover the head. The colour is not specified in the rule, and it is conjectured that the early Benedictine wore white as being the natural colour of undyed wool. For many centuries, however, black has been the prevailing colour, whence the term 'black monk' comes to mean a Benedictine in general, or one who does not belong to certain congregations which have a special colour—e.g. the Camaldolese, the Cistercians and Olivetans wear white, and the Silvestrines blue. The latter are numerous in Ceylon.
St Benedict's twin-sister Scholastica is supposed to have lived under his rule, and Benedictine nuns have always been as numerous as Benedictine monks. At present the number of their convents probably much exceeds that of the monasteries of men. For the 'Benedictine Editions,' see MAURISTS.
See Annales Ordinis Sti Benedicti, and Acta Sanctorum Ordinis Sti Benedicti, by Mabillon; Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia, Reyner; Album Benedictinum (St Vincent's, Pennsylvania, 1880); The Holy Rule of St Benedict (Fort Augustus, 1885); The Monks of the West, Montalembert.