For obvious reasons—it has been around for much longer, and its contemplative and liturgical way of life is entirely structured for prioritizing the pursuit of sanctity—the Benedictine Order numbers more saints, blesseds, venerables, and reputed holy men and women than any other order in the Church, especially if we include the many later branches and reform movements that, called by various names, nevertheless take Benedict’s Holy Rule as their guide.
Those who admire or follow St. Benedict will rejoice, therefore, in the republication by Os Justi Press of A Benedictine Martyrology. Published in 1922 and long out-of-print, this book is Alexius Hoffman’s English translation and adaptation of the Rev. Peter Lechner’s Ausführliches Martyrologium des Benedictiner-Ordens und Seiner Verzweigungen [Detailed Martyrology of the Benedictine Order and its Branches], published in Munich in 1855. The original was published in cloth; this reprint is paperback, but with the simple and formal cover design displayed above.
The volume is catholic in its criteria, containing
not only the “classic” black monks but members of reforms and branches such as
the Order of Citeaux, of Camaldoli, of Vallombrosa, of Monte Oliveto, of Monte
Vergine, of Fiore, of Pulsano, and of La Trappe, the Celestines, the
Humiliati, and the Congregations of Cava and Cluny, as well as military Orders
and eminent benefactors. Weighing in at a substantial 350 pages, with over 1,500 entries, it is a
worthy supplement to the Roman Martyrology, a moving testament to the
greatness of the spiritual family inaugurated by the holy twins Benedict and
Scholastica.
The book gathers succinct biographies of men and women
who lived according to or in the ambit of the Rule of St. Benedict
and who died with a reputation for heroic virtue and sanctity, including both
those officially beatified or canonized and those who received local
veneration. Note that, unlike the Roman Martyrology, which is little
more than a list of names, places, and a salient fact or two, the
Benedictine Martyrology devotes anywhere from one paragraph to a
whole page to the life of each man or woman recorded. In that sense, it is a
sort of “mean” between the Roman Martyrology’s pithiness and the
multi-page treatments in The Golden Legend or
Butler’s Lives. Each day has usually four or five entries, covering
three quarters of a page to a little over a page. In this way, it would serve
admirably for daily reading after the Office of Prime or at some other
convenient moment.
The Benedictine Martyrology is available from Amazon.com (link) and its affiliates.
Here, as a sample, are the first three pages from the month of December:
One stumbles upon delightful entries like this one, from February 19th:
Further information about the authors:
Rev. Peter Lechner, O.S.B.
was born on March 7, 1805 at Pfaffenhofen in Bavaria and was ordained in 1827
at Augsburg. In 1838 he entered the Benedictine monastery of Scheyern, made
profession in 1839, was prior from 1842–1847, and came across the Atlantic to
St. Vincent’s near Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he lived from 1847–1851. After
this he returned to Scheyern, where he died on July 26, 1873. He was the
author of forty-one works.
Very Rev. Alexius Hoffmann, O.S.B.
was born on January 31, 1863, in St. Paul, Minnesota and entered the
Benedictine Order in 1880, wherein he made solemn vows in 1884 and was
ordained a priest in 1885. He served in various administrative and academic
positions at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota and authored a
number of historical works. Pope Pius XI named him a Doctor of Sacred Theology
in 1923. He died on July 6, 1940.
May this book find its way to Benedictine monks, nuns, oblates, and admirers everywhere!
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| La Gloria di S. Benedetto by Pietro Annigoni (1979), showing the Patriarch surrounded by his multitudinous offspring |
(Os Justi Press is publisher of the anthology John Henry Newman on Worship, Reverence, and Ritual, Pius Parsch’s The Breviary Explained, Romano Guardini’s Sacred Signs, Fr. Willie Doyle’s incomparable pamphlet Vocations, the illustrated Missal for Young Catholics, Robert Hugh Benson’s The King’s Achivement and By What Authority?, the pocket edition Roman Martyrology, and many other traditional Catholic titles.)
