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| FOUNDATION 500 SUBIACO, ITALY |  | FOUNDER ST BENEDICT OF NURSIA |
| HISTORY | ST BENEDICT | FOUNDATIONS |
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| HISTORY |
| THE BENEDICTINES ARE THE OLDEST RELIGIOUS ORDER IN THE LATIN CHURCH AND THE INSPIRATION FOR THE RELIGIOUS LIFE THAT INFORMS EVERY ASPECT OF LATIN CHRISTIANITY. IN 500 AD ST BENEDICT OF NURSIA FORMED THE FIRST COMMUNITY OF BENEDICTINE MONKS AT SUBIACO IN ITALY. WHAT MADE HIS FOUNDATION DIFFERENT WAS ITS FOCUS NOT JUST ON PRAYER AND STUDY BUT ON MANUAL WORK AND A TRULY COMMUNAL LIFE. CHRISTIANITY OWES AN ENORMOUS DEBT TO THESE MONKS WHO PRESERVED CIVILISATION AND CHRISTIANITY ITSELF DURING THE DARK YEARS OF THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS. OVER THE CENTURIES MANY MONASTERIES, PRIORIES AND ABBEYS WERE FOUNDED IN THE BENEDICTINE TRADITION, EACH INTERPRETING THE RULE ACCORDING TO ITS CIRCUMSTANCES AND LOCALITY BUT, DESPITE THE INITIALS OSB AFTER THEIR NAMES, NO "ORDER" AS SUCH EXISTED. WHILE SOME MONASTERIES WERE LINKED TO A COMMON ANCESTOR MANY WERE COMPLETELY INDEPENDANT. IN 1887 POPE LEO XIII BROUGHT TOGETHER ALL THE MALE MONASTERIES AND CONGREGATIONS OF BENEDICTINES INTO THE BENEDICTINE CONFEDERATION OF CONGREGATIONS UNDER AN ABBOT-PRIMATE LOCATED IN ROME. GRADUALLY THE VARIOUS INDEPENDANT FOUNDATIONS AGGREGATED THEMSELVES TO ONE OR OTHER OF THE EXISTING CONGREGATIONS. IN DUE COURSE FEMALE BENEDICTINES WERE ADMITTED AS ASSOCIATES OF THE CONFEDERATION, EITHER THROUGH AGGREGATION TO A MALE CONGREGATION OR AS AN INDEPENDANT FEMALE CONGREGATION. TODAY THEIR ARE TWENTY-ONE MEMBER CONGREGATIONS OF MALE BENEDICTINES WITH AN ADDITIONAL SIXTY-ONE ASSOCIATED CONGREGATIONS OR FEDERATIONS OF BENEDICTINE NUNS. |
| AUSTRALIAN FOUNDATION |
| THE BENEDICTINES CAN JUSTLY CLAIM TO HAVE BEEN THE FIRST RELIGIOUS TO COME TO AUSTRALIA WHEN FOUR BENEDICTINES OF DOWNSIDE ABBEY ACCOMPANIED JOHN BEDE POLDING OSB, NEWLY APPOINTED VICAR APOSTOLIC OF NEW HOLLAND TO AUSTRALIA IN 1834. ARCHBISHOP POLDING HAD A DREAM OF SETTING UP A TRULY "BENEDICTINE" CHURCH AND ONE OF HIS FIRST MOVES WAS TO ESTABLISH ST MARY'S CATHEDRAL AS A MONASTIC FOUNDATION. THIS WAS FOLLOWED BY A BENEDICTINE COLLEGE AT LYNDHURST (GLEBE). IN 1846 ANOTHER GROUP OF BENEDICTINES FROM SPAIN ESTABLISHED A FLOURISHING ABBEY AT NEW NORCIA AND IN 1849 POLDING ESTABLISHED A MONASTERY OF BENEDICTINE NUNS AT SUBIACO (RYDALMERE). THUS BY 1850 BENEDICTINES WERE WELL ESTABLISHED IN THE COLONIES. SADLY THE FAILURE OF POLDINGS "BENEDICTINE DREAM" ENDED THIS EXPANSION. WHILE THE ABBEY OF NEW NORCIA AND THE MONASTERIES OF THE BENEDICTINE NUNS CLUNG ON THE BENEDICTINES AS A WHOLE GAVE WAY TO THE TEACHING AND PREACHING ORDERS. ONLY IN THE LATER HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY HAVE NEW FOUNDATIONS OF BENEDICTINES OCCURRED IN NSW, QUEENSLAND AND VICTORIA. DESPITE ALL THESE VICISSITUDES THE SPIRIT OF ST BENEDICT HAS SURVIVED IN AUSTRALIA AS IT DID DURIING THE DARK DAYS OF EUROPE. |
| OTHER BENEDICTINE CONGREGATIONS |
| FOR INFORMATION ON THE FOLLOWING BENEDICTINE CONGREGATIONS SEE THEIR INDIVIDUAL PAGES ORDER OF CISTERCIANS SISTERS OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN SYLVESTRINE CONGREGATION TYBURN NUNS TUTZING SISTERS |
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| FOUNDATIONS | |||||
| THERE ARE CURRENTLY THREE HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS AND ONE OF BENEDICTINE MONKS IN AUSTRALIA NOT COUNTING THE FOUNDATIONS OF OTHER BENEDICTINE CONGREGATIONS (SEE ABOVE). THERE ARE ALSO SEVERAL HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS. | |||||
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CROYDON |
GLEBE |
JAMBEROO |
LAMMERMOOR | ||
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NEW NORCIA |
PENNANT HILLS |
RYDALMERE |
SYDNEY | ||