- Joan Chittister
Sister Joan D. Chittister, OSB (born 26 April 1936) is a Benedictine nun and an international lecturer on topics concerning women, the poor, peace and justice, and contemporary issues in church and society. In her more than 50 years as a nun she has authored 35 books, including recent books such as : "The Ten Commandments, Laws of the Heart; The Tent of Abraham - stories of hope and peace for Jews, … - Benedict Of Nursia
Saint Benedict of Nursia was an Italian saint, the founder of the Benedictine order. Benedict founded twelve monasteries, the best known of which was his first monastery at Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. The monastery at Monte Cassino was the first Benedictine monastery. Benedict wrote a set of rules governing his monks, the Rule of Saint Benedict, which was heavily influenced by the writings of Saint John Cassian (ca. - John Main
Fr. John Main, OSB (1926-1982), was a Benedictine monk and priest who presented a way of Christian meditation which utilized the practice of a prayer-phrase or mantra. In 1975, Fr. Main began Christian meditation groups at his monastery in London, England and, later, in Montreal, Canada. These grew into an ecumenical network of Christian meditation groups called the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM). - Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Norris (b. 1947) is a best-selling poet and essayist who has become known for her writings about Christian spirituality, especially after she became a Benedictine oblate and spent two extended periods at Saint John's Abbey in Minnesota. Born in Washington D.C., she was raised in South Dakota and Honolulu, attended Bennington College in Vermont and now divides her time between South Dakota and Hawaii. - John Cassian
Saint John Cassian (Latin: Jo(h)annes Eremita Cassianus, Joannus Cassianus, or Joannes Massiliensis) is a Christian theologian celebrated in the Western and Eastern Churches for his mystical writings. He is known both as one of the "Scythian monks" and as one of the "Desert Fathers." He was born around 360 possibly in the eastern Roman Empire. Whether or not he was a Scythian by birth, as a young adult, … - Bede Griffiths
Alan Richard "Bede" Griffiths (17 December, 1906 - 13 May, 1993), also known as Swami Dayananda, (Bliss of Compassion) was a British-born Benedictine monk and mystic who lived in ashrams in South India. He was born at Walton-on-Thames, England and studied literature at Oxford University under professor and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, who became a lifelong friend. - Anselm Of Canterbury
Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033 - April 21 1109) was an Italian medieval philosopher, theologian, and church official who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. Called the founder of scholasticism, he is famous as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God and as the archbishop who openly opposed the Crusades. - Scholastica
Saint Scholastica (c. 480 - 543) is a Catholic saint. Born in Italy, she was the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia. St. Gregory the Great, in his "Dialogues", tells us that she was a nun and leader of a community for women about five miles from St Benedict's abbey at Monte Cassino. We do not know what rule this community followed, although it seems most likely it was the Rule of St. Benedict. - Clare Of Assisi
Saint Clare of Assisi, born Chiara Offreduccio (July 16, 1194 - August 11, 1253) was an Italian saint, one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi and founded the Order of Poor Ladies to organize the women who chose to embrace monastic life in the Franciscan vision. - Laurence Freeman
Fr. Laurence Freeman, O.S.B., is a Benedictine monk and priest. He is the director of The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM), which is a global network of Christian meditation groups that practice the way of Christian meditation taught by Fr. John Main, O.S.B.. Fr. Freeman is also the founder and director of the John Main Center for Meditation and Inter-religious Dialogue at Georgetown University - Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris (c. 1200-1259) was a Benedictine monk, English chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire. He wrote (as both author and scribe) a number of works, mostly historical, which he illuminated himself, typically in drawings partly coloured with watercolour washes, sometimes called "tinted drawings". Some were written in Latin, some in Anglo-Norman or French verse. - Peter Abelard
Pierre Abélard (in English, Peter Abelard) or Abailard was a French scholastic philosopher, theologian, and logician. The story of his affair with his student, Héloïse, has become legendary. - Dom Pérignon
Dom Pierre Pérignon was a Benedictine monk frequently credited with the invention of champagne. The famous brand of champagne Dom Pérignon is named after him. - Bede
Bede (also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or (from Latin) "Beda" ), (c. 672 or 673 – May 25, 735), was a Benedictine monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow (see Wearmouth-Jarrow), both in the English county of Durham (now Tyne and Wear). He is well known as an author and scholar, … - Benedict Biscop
Benedict Biscop (c. 628 - 690) (also known as Biscop Baducing) was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory. - Peter The Venerable
Peter the Venerable (about 1092 - December 25, 1156 in Cluny, France), also known as Peter of Montboissier, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Cluny, born to Blessed Raingarde in Auvergne, France. He has been honored as a saint but has never been formally canonized. - Rabanus Maurus
Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c. 780 - 4 February 856), also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Benedictine monk, the archbishop of Mainz in Germany and a theologian. He was the author of the encyclopaedia "On the Nature of Things". He also wrote treatises on education and grammar and commentaries on the Bible. He was one of the most prominent teachers and writers of the Carolingian age. - Gertrude The Great
Gertrude the Great (January 6 1256-November 17 1301) was a German Benedictine and mystic writer. Gertrude was born January 6 1256, in Eisleben, Thuringia, Holy Roman Empire). Nothing is known of her parents, so she was probably an orphan. As a young girl, she joined the Benedictine monastery in Helfta, under the direction of its abbess, Gertrude of Hackeborn. (In later years the monastery was mislabeled as a Cistercian monastery.) She dedicated herself to her studies, … - Basil Hume
George Basil Cardinal Hume OSB, OM, MA, STL (March 2, 1923-June 17, 1999) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales from 1979 until his death. Hume was elevated to the cardinalate in 1976. - Benedict Of Aniane
Benedict of Aniane (also called Witiza; the Second Benedict) (c. 747 - 11 February 821) was a saint born in France. The son of the Goth, Aigulf, Count of Maguelone in Languedoc, France, Witiza was educated at the Frankish court of Pippin the Younger, and entered the royal service. - Willibrord
Saint Willibrord was a Northumbrian missionary, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in modern Netherlands. He became the first Bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg. His father, Wilgils or St. Hilgis, an Angle or, as Alcuin styles him, a Saxon, of Northumbria, withdrew from the world and constructed for himself a little oratory dedicated to St Andrew. The king and nobles of the district endowed him with estates until he was at last able to build a church, … - Terry Oldfield
Terry left school at 16 to travel the world and worked as a roadie for various bands including the Byrds, setting-up stage and sound mixing systems. During an extended stay on the Greek island of Hydra, he took up his first musical instrument, the flute. Says Terry "I think it was learning to play in this way, with no formal guidance, that allowed me to develop the ability to compose music. - Eadmer
Eadmer, or Edmer (c. 1060-c. 1124), was an English historian, theologian, and ecclesiastic. He is known for being a contemporary biographer of Saint Anselm. - Abhishiktananda
Abhishiktananda was the name taken by the French Benedictine monk Henri le Saux, whose religious experience in India led him to become a bridge between Hindu and Christian spirituality. Born in Saint Briac, Brittany on August 30 1910, he seemed destined for a religious life and entered 'minor seminary' at the age of 11, becoming a Benedictine novice in 1930. He left France for India in the summer of 1948, … - Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis (circa 1505-23 November 1585) was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician during the often stormy 16th century in England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of its earliest composers. - Boniface Wimmer
Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. (1809-1887) was a German monk who in 1846 founded the first Benedictine monastery in the United States, Saint Vincent Archabbey, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, forty miles southeast of Pittsburgh. - John Of Nepomuk
John of Nepomuk or John Nepomucene is a national saint of Bohemia. In his fully developed legend he was the confessor of the Queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. He has been made into the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional, a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, a protector from floods. The historical starting-point of the Nepomuk legend is the person of John of Pomuk (Jan z Pomuk), … - David Knowles
David Knowles (Studley, Warwickshire 1896-1974) was an English Benedictine monk of Downside Abbey and historian. He became Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge in 1954, retiring in 1963. His works on monasticism in England, through to the dissolution of the monasteries, are taken as authoritative. He was born Michael Clive Knowles, David being a religious name, by which he was always known. He was educated at Downside College, Christ's College, … - Augustine Baker
Fr Augustine Baker OSB (1575-1641) was a well-known Benedictine mystic and an ascetic writer. Born David Baker at Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, December 9 1575, his father was William Baker, steward to Lord Abergavenny, and his mother was a daughter of Lewis ap John (alias Wallis), Vicar of Abergavenny. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and at Broadgate's Hall, now Pembroke College, Oxford, afterwards becoming a member of Clifford's Inn, and later of the Middle Temple. - François Rabelais
François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer. - Rembert Weakland
Rembert George Weakland, OSB (born April 2, 1927) is a Roman Catholic archbishop. He was the archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977 to 2002. Born in Patton, Pennsylvania, he professed his vows as a member of the Benedictines on September 23, 1946, and was ordained a priest on 24 June, 1951 in Subiaco, Italy. He was elevated to abbot primate of the Benedictines on September 29, 1967. An accomplished musician and influential liturgist, he is a noted expert on Gregorian chant. - Radbertus
Radbertus Paschasius or Saint Paschasius (c. 790 - 865) was a French Benedictine theologian and [[saint] - Jean Mabillon
Jean Mabillon was a Benedictine monk and scholar, considered the founder of palaeography and diplomatics. He was born in Saint-Pierremont in Champagne, France, the son of Estienne Mabillon (who died in 1692 at age 104) and Jeanne Guérin. At age 12 he entered the Collège des Bons Enfants in Reims and in 1650 entered the seminary. He left the seminary in 1653 and instead became a monk in the Maurist abbey of Saint Remi. His devotion to his studies there left him ill, … - Prosper Guéranger
Dom Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger was a Benedictine priest and abbot of Solesmes. Dom Guéranger was the author of "The Liturgical Year", which covers every day of the Catholic Church's Liturgical Cycle. It is a set of 15 volumes. Guéranger, the Abbot of Solesmes, restored the Priory of Solesmes. Guéranger was well regarded by Pope Pius IX, and was a proponent of the dogmas of papal infallibility and the Immaculate Conception. - John Chapman
The Right Reverend Dom John Chapman OSB (born 1865, died 7 November 1933), a convert from the Anglican to the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 25, was a Roman Catholic priest, the 4th Abbot of Downside Abbey of the English Benedictine Congregation from 1929 till his death, an internationally respected New Testament and patristics scholar, a defender of the priority of the Gospel according to Matthew, and a spiritual writer enjoying enduring appreciation. <br - Dunstan
Dunstan (909-May 19 988) was an Archbishop of Canterbury (960-988) who was later canonized as a saint. He gained fame for the many stories told about his cunning in dealing with the Devil. He was born at Baltonsborough, and lived for a while in the household of King Athelstan of England. He was pressured to leave the court some time later, when, after having alienated some court officials with his love of singing and reading, he was accused of being involved in black magic. - Lullus
Saint Lullus (Lull or Lul) (born about 710 in Wessex, died 16 October 786 in Hersfeld) was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. His name is the latinized form of Lul, a short version of Germanic names that begin with the syllable "Lud" or "Lut" (e.g., Lutger, Ludwig). He was monk in the Benedictine monastery of Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. - John Lydgate
John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England. - Robert Of Molesme
Saint Robert of Molesme (c. 1027-1111) was a Christian saint and abbot, one of the founders of the Cistercian Order in France. - Guido Of Arezzo
Guido of Arezzo or Guido Aretinus or Guido da Arezzo or Guido Monaco or Guido D'Arezzo (991/992-after 1033) was a music theorist of the Medieval era. He is regarded as the inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) that replaced neumatic notation; his text, the "Micrologus", was the second-most-widely distributed treatise on music in the middle ages (after the writings of Boethius).
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