ST BENEDICT: PATRON OF ALL EUROPE

Context and history

On 24 October 1964 Pope Paul VI declared St Benedict, ‘Patron of All Europe’ via the Apostolic Letter, Pacis Nuntius (‘Herald of Peace’). On that same day the Pope had re-consecrated St Benedict’s monastery of Monte Cassino which had been destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944 and re-built over the following two decades. Although armed conflict in Europe had ceased, the world was living under the shadow of the Cold War and Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain. However, the drive towards European Unity in Western Europe which had been forged after the end of the Second World War still had momentum.

On 11 July 2025, the 60^th anniversary of St Benedict’s first feast under that new title, Stanbrook oblates joined the community for a celebratory tea and Vespers of the Feast. Sandwiched between these was a discussion on the following question:

What does St Benedict as ‘Patron of All Europe’ still have to say to us who live in Europe today?

There follows a summary of some of the key points made at the discussion:

• One person thought that we are probably more aware of Benedict’s importance as Patron of Europe today than we were, even say, a decade ago at the 50^th anniversary of Pacis Nuntius. Then, the UK was still part of the European Union, made up of c.27 nations, fraying a bit at the edges but still quite a strong force in the world. There had in 2015 been no official war on European soil for 70 years (though no little civil unrest and paramilitary violence in places over the years, e.g. in Ireland and the Basque lands) and it seemed unlikely that there would be such a war again.
  Now, unbelievably, we approach the 4^th anniversary of the conflict in Ukraine, while we in the UK have chosen to opt out of the European Union. The conflict in Ukraine has at least highlighted once more the need for European unity and vigilance.
  Now, more than ever, we need ‘heralds of peace’ like St Benedict, to pull us back from the brink of fratricide. So St Benedict’s patronage under this title is most timely.
• Another person highlighted the role of Benedictine/Cistercian/Carthusian monasteries as guardians of European culture (literary, artisanal and agricultural) as they were during the so called ‘Dark Age’ after the Roman Empire had largely lost its unifying hold on Europe by the end of the 6^th Reference was made to Bishop Baron’s video about St Benedict, ‘The Kid in the Cave’ from The Word on Fire’s ‘Pivotal Players’ series.
  The same person argued that this particular role of Benedict as Patron of Europe is still valid today.
• Others built on this: perhaps now that the Arts and the Academy have taken over some of the functions of preserving European culture, it is left to the monasteries to uphold and preserve bonds and rituals of communal life – shared meals, festivals, mutual support, the culture of the book and reading, the pursuit of wisdom rather than knowledge.
• Yet another point raised to illustrate the perennial relevance of Benedict’s teaching, not only for Europe but for all peoples, is the way the Rule caters for individual needs on a human scale, including the need we have as human beings for sacrificial love in order to become fully human. This was summed up by reference to a recent talk by Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe who contrasted the ‘My body, my rights’ culture in which we live in the West with Jesus’s ‘This is my body, given for you’.
• In the same vein it was pointed out that other key Gospel values enshrined in the Rule such as humility and prayer are sorely needed in our world today. Hopefully, we who live according to the Rule of St Benedict can model these and channel them to the world.
• Finally, it was noted that Europe was the birth place of the so-called ‘Enlightenment’ of the 17^th-18^th centuries, that movement which prioritized science, rationalism, empiricism. Yet, Europe, the birth place of Descartes and his ‘I think therefore I am’, has also been the place where seeds of a ‘counter Enlightenment’ have sprung up, for example, Pascal’s ‘the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing’. The Rule of Benedict embodies a spirituality which prioritizes the heart, love, relationships, intuition; not shunning reason but rather bringing all aspects of the human person into unity and in the right balance.
  Is it a coincidence that in the very place and time of the Enlightenment so many Benedictine monasteries were founded, including our own in Flanders in 1623?

Our discussion was rich and stimulating and our unanimous conclusion was that St Benedict’s place as Patron of Europe is as necessary today as it was 60 years ago and probably even more so.
We pray for the grace to live faithfully and share our Benedictine heritage.

Sr Laurentia July 2025
©Stanbrook Abbey

Link to Pacis Nuncius
https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/la/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-vi_apl_19641024_pacis-nuntius.html