The Monks of Norcia, who have called the city home since the year 2000, were forced to begin work on a new, seismic-resistant monastery on site of their old monastic grange when a series of devastating earthquakes destroyed their church and home in town in 2016.
The international community of monks who live there are committed to living according to the ancient observance of the Rule of St. Benedict and understand this otherwise tragic moment in history as a call from God to deepen their vocation as men of prayer, conversion, study and manual labor, and to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
For 16 years, the monks acted as guardians over the historic birth home of St. Benedict and his twin sister St. Scholastica. The monks are grateful to the many who helped them restore the basilica to great beauty over the course of those blessed years.
Now, the European Union and the Italian state have pledged to restore the basilica and monastery. The Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia, which owns the buildings, has decided that the spaces will have to be used by the diocese since all the other churches in town were also destroyed. Throughout the many years needed for the massive work of reconstruction, while the monks work to build the new monastery in Monte, their hearts will remain there in the ancient crypt of the basilica, the birth home to their great founder and father, St. Benedict.
Inspired by the ancient musical texts, the monks chant the full Office in Latin and offer the Holy Mass each day in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
The monks dedicate their prayers to those who have asked them for intercession, for the benefit of the local Nursini and all Italians, as well as for the sake of the whole Church and world.
The monks have shared their chants with the world in many ways since the founding of their community, most notably in the release of a Billboard-topping album in 2015. Benedicta, the monks’ CD of Marian chants, can be purchased here. ↓
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Inaugurated in 2012, Birra Nursia is the monks’ way to live out the maxim of St. Benedict that says true monks live by the work of their own hands.
With their viable industry underway, exporting brews to the USA and elsewhere, the monks try to be self-sustaining and raise funds to build their new home, while sharing their profits with those most in need in the earthquake-stricken valley. What began in the ancient walls of the monastery in town will soon move close to the mountainside lodgings so that the monks can maintain their rhythm of life and schedule of prayer.
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Whether cooking a meal for a special feast, lending a helping hand with big moving projects or bottling beer with the monks for a few hours, townspeople have shown their great devotion to the saint through their consistent support of the monks’ community.
The monks hope San Benedetto in Monte will become a source of light and hope for generations to come, welcoming local citizens and pilgrims to prayers and days of retreat, offering them the silence and peace that the world cannot.
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With commitments made by the EU and the Italian state to restore the historic buildings in town for the needs of the diocese, the monks will concentrate their efforts on their 16th century church and rural property outside the walls of town.
There, a new magnificent church and monastery will rise up to complement the old one, encompassing all that the monks hold dear: the restoration of man through the worship of God, so that men might become monks, that monks might become saints, and Norcia, Europe and the world might be brought closer to God.