Talk:Order of Saint Benedict (Eastern Orthodox)

Start
I have started this page because of an absence of any single source of information about the Benedictine tradition within Orthodoxy, largely because the majority of Benedictines are not Orthodox and the majority of Orthodox monastics are not Benedictine. As it appears that Benedictines of other traditions individual articles dedicated to them, I thought that it was in keeping with established practice to create a separate article for Orthodox Benedictines. I hope that this is all right.

Information posted regarding the communties of Mount Royal and Christminster comes primarily from the Christminster website, (linked to from the article), and is partly verified by the archeipiscopal letter of His Grace Archbishop HILARION of Sydney, reproduced on that same website.

The information about St Petroc can be verified by the St Petroc website.

I have only been able to locate an article dating from the 1960s about the d’Alleray Priory, when it was still functional. I know nothing of its formation or its demise, hence the notable absence of any information in the "history" section of the article. Please add what you know and can verify. Many thanks.

Also, my knowledge is limited to the ROCOR and the NA Antiochian Archdiocese. There may well be Benedictines in the Orthodox Church of France or elsewhere. Please supply details if possible. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bertelin (talk • contribs) 17:34, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

The Amalfion
The only work cited on the history of the Amalfion does not address the point of whether or not they were/became "Orthodox", whatever one takes it to mean. In any case there is no continuity between them and any modern Benedictines of any stripe. Mangoe (talk) 21:44, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Sourcing problems
There are copious links but a total lack of sourcing. I have commented out one passage which has been completely changed but which in neither state had any citation. I'll be making some attempt to sort this out but I'm likely to just delete anything that isn't in the links, particularly if it involves historical claims. Mangoe (talk) 00:28, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 one external links on Order of Saint Benedict (Orthodox). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070207042307/http://www.theorthodoxchurch.org/documents/The%20Western%20Orthodox%20Liturgy%20-%20Order%20for%20the%20Celebration%20-%20Restored.pdf to http://www.theorthodoxchurch.org/documents/The%20Western%20Orthodox%20Liturgy%20-%20Order%20for%20the%20Celebration%20-%20Restored.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070207042231/http://www.theorthodoxchurch.org/documents/Western%20Orthodox%20Liturgy%20-%20Restored.pdf to http://www.theorthodoxchurch.org/documents/Western%20Orthodox%20Liturgy%20-%20Restored.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 02:26, 2 July 2016 (UTC)

Leads for future editors
In early 2022, a big chunk of information was removed from this article because it was unsourced and probably original research. Although not up to WP’s article standards, that information may contain some helpful hooks for future editors looking for better sources (and I hope to mine it myself as I have time). In case that’s true, here’s a link to the article before the material was pruned.

{{collapse|1= The Benedictine monastic tradition began with St Benedict of Nursia himself, who was a Christian monk in the 6th century. Influenced by the writings of Saints Basil the Great and John Cassian, he composed a monastic rule for the ordering of the life of monastic communities in Europe, rather than adopting one of the many rules that had been composed for monks in a different climate, with different foods available, and so forth. The liturgical traditions he enumerated conformed to the Roman Rite of the local church; which was then neither as elaborate nor as legislated as it later became.

Most Benedictine communities existed in the West under what was geographically the jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome.

After some centuries of increasing distance between Rome and the Eastern ancient Patriarchates (due to doctrinal, linguistic, and cultural differences, and the West's development of a different school of theology), the Western and Eastern branches of the Church separated, with the Western branch taking most of the Benedictine monastic communities.

However, some Benedictines outside of the jurisdiction of Rome remained Orthodox,{{sup|[dubious – discuss]}} including monks of the Amalfion Monastery, which was a community of Benedictine monks from Italy who had come to reside on Mount Athos in the late 10th century, where they remained until the late 13th century when the monastery went defunct.

20th century revival
The Benedictine tradition was largely lost to the Orthodox Church until the 20th century, when a revival was seen, encouraged by the efforts to restore the Western Rite to Orthodoxy that began in the 19th century.

In 1962, under the leadership of its abbot, Dom Augustine (Whitfield), the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Royal, which had been an Old Catholic monastic community since its founding in 1910, was received into the Moscow Patriarchal Russian Orthodox Church by Bishop Dositheus (Ivanchenko) of New York. It was later received into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, in 1975, by Archbishop Nikon (Rkitzsky). The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia reunited with the Moscow Patriarchate in 2008.

In 1993, Bishop Hilarion (Kapral) of Manhattan (now Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia) blessed the founding of a new Benedictine monastery under its abbot, Dom James (Deschene), the former Prior of Mount Royal. Christ the Saviour Monastery (Christminster) runs an oblate programme that seeks the formation of clergy within the Western Rite of the Orthodox Church, a provision lacking in most Orthodox seminaries. It also publishes music and liturgical books to enhance the offering of the Western Rite Orthodox liturgy.

In 1997, Hilarion (Kapral), then Archbishop of Sydney, received into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia the Monastery of Saint Petroc in Tasmania, Australia. This monastic community had been formed as a Continuing Anglican monastery in 1992 under its superior, Hieromonk Michael (Mansbridge-Wood). While it was not a Benedictine foundation it did have a Benedictine presence in the form of the Holyrood hermitage in Florida, which became an independent monastic hermitage under Abbot David (Pierce). The monastery closed in 2012.

One female Benedictine monastic house exists in the Orthodox Church, as attached to the Antiochian Monasteries of Our Lady and St Laurence, commonly known as Ladyminster.

Within the United States, the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America has at least one Benedictine monastery, including Ladyminster, as well as parishes that run an oblate programme.

Several Benedictine monastic houses, sketes and hermitages fit within the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, all stavropegial directly under the Metropolitan. An oblate programme exists for Orthodox laity Saint Benedict Russian Orthodox Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Abbey of the Holy Name with its daughter House of St John the Theologian is under the Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of North and South America and the British Isles
 * 2=Deleted History section}} Brian (talk) 09:38, 16 February 2023 (UTC)