Cassinese Congregation

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The Cassinese Congregation , also Cassinese Congregation (lat. Congregatio Cas (s) inensis Ordinis Sancti Benedicti ) is an association of Benedictines within the Benedictine Confederation . The Congregation owes its establishment to the reform efforts of Ludovico Barbo, who on December 20, 1408 by Pope Gregory XII. was appointed abbot of the monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua . His place of activity became the birthplace of the Benedictine reforms in Italy, which is why the monastery association was called the Congregation of Santa Giustina in the first century of its existence . Since 2013 the Cassinese Congregation has been reunited with the Sublazese Congregation , which had been separated from it in 1872.

history

St. Justina Abbey in Padua
The Archabbey of Monte Cassino, namesake of the congregation

In the 10th and 11th centuries, most of the Italian monasteries came under the influence of Cluny and had adapted their customs. By the end of the 14th century, however, times had changed and there was hardly an abbey left that had preserved the Cluny Observance. As Gregory XII. awarded St. Justina in Padua in Commendam to the Cardinal of Bologna in 1407 , the abbey, which previously belonged to the Cluniac Union, was in a corrupt and ruinous state.

The reform-minded prelate introduced some Olivetans into the abbey, but the three remaining Cluniac monks complained to the Republic of Venice that their ancestral rights had been impaired. The result was that the abbey was awarded to them and the Olivetans had to leave. The cardinal then returned the abbey to the Pope, who in turn appointed Ludovico Barbo, a regular canon from San Giorgio in Alga , as abbot. Barbo, who originally did not belong to the Benedictine order, from then on wore the habit of the Benedictines and was ordained abbot on February 3, 1409 . With the help of two Camaldolese monks and two canons from San Giorgio in Alga, he created a reformed observance that was quickly adapted by other monasteries. The merger of these monasteries into a new congregation was approved by Martin V on January 1, 1419 through the bull Ineffabilis summi providentia Patris and at the first general chapter in 1421 Abbot Barbo was elected first abbot praeses . The leadership of the congregation came from the general chapter, which weakened the jurisdiction of the abbots of the individual monasteries of the association. The abbeys of Subiaco, Monte Cassino , St. Pauls in Rome , San Giorgio in Alga, Cava de 'Tirreni and Farfa were among the first monasteries to join the new congregation .

In 1437 the congregation belonged to 18 monasteries with around 300 monks. It was initially called De unitate and had two denominations , namely Congregatio monachorum de observantia S. Justinae and Congregatio Unitatis . After the accession of the Montecassino Abbey in 1504, the association was renamed the "Cassinese Congregation". Gradually the Congregation gathered all the great Benedictine monasteries in Italy, approximately two hundred, divided into the seven provinces of Rome, Naples, Sicily, Tuscany, Venice, Lombardy and Genoa. In 1505 the Lérins Abbey in Provence joined with all of its offshoots.

Although the centralization accompanying the reform and the introduction of an effective monitoring system meant an obvious departure from Benedictine ideals and posed a considerable potential for danger, the Congregation prospered until the revolutionary year 1848. The decrees of the Italian government reduced the influx of new novices into the monasteries and monasteries initiated a wave of oppression that significantly reduced the number of monasteries and robbed them of their former size. The founding of the Congregation of Subiaco in 1872 took further parts of the Cassinese Congregation with it and over the years it shrank to a size that was more modest in the 21st century.

Key points of the reforms

The central point of Barbo's reform was the abolition of the in commendam rule, according to which abbots could be appointed by secular or ecclesiastical rulers as they pleased. The power of the superiors should also be curtailed by the annual general chapter and nine definitors . As a result, the individual monasteries were almost completely deprived of their autonomy. All power was now concentrated in the definitory , which organized and supervised all meetings, from the abbot praeses down to the smallest monk. The sole administration of the monastic property also fell into the remit of the Definitors.

Todays situation

The last abbot praeses of the congregation before their reunification with the Sublazens congregation was Dom Giordano Rota OSB, professed monk and abbot of the Pontida Abbey , since July 28, 2010 .

In July 2010 the General Chapter of the Cassinese Congregation voted to start talks on union with the Congregation of Subiaco . On October 4, 2010 Abbot President Dom Giordano Rota submitted the formal request for such an association to the Congregation of Subiaco. In 2013 the union of the Congregation of Cassinese and the Congregation of Subiaco was accomplished. Together they now form the new Congregation of Subiaco and Montecassino . Their first abbot präses was Bruno Marin OSB, the abbot of the Praglia Abbey in Teolo near Padua.

The current Abbot President since 2016 is Guillermo L. Arboleda Tamayo OSB, Abbot of the Santa Maria of Medellin Abbey.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Entry on the Benedictine order in the Catholic Encyclopedia on Catholic Online, as of February 27, 2012
  2. ↑ Dom Bennet Weldon: PAX: Chronological notes containing the rise, growth, and present state of the English congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, drawn from the archives of the houses of the said congregation at Douay in Flanders, Dieulwart in Lorraine, Paris in France, and Lambspring in Germany, where are preserved the authentic acts and original deeds, etc. an: 1709; Stanbrook Worcester, 1881
  3. ^ Cassinese Congregation ; Accessed February 27, 2012
  4. ^ David Parry: The Cassinense Congregation a PO (1867-1872) . In: Abadia de Montserrat: (Ed.): Pietro Casaretto e gli inizi della Congregazione Sublacense (1810-1880). Saggio storico nel i centenario della congregazione (1872–1972) (= Studia monastica, vol. 14). Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, Montserrat 1972, pp. 461-484.
  5. ^ EA Livingstone: Cassinese Congregation in: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2000
  6. ^ Reform Congregations ; Accessed March 5, 2012

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