Benedictine Monasticism

The Order of St Benedict

In the sixth century, St Benedict was one of many abbots who wrote a Rule for monks. He had established monasteries at Subiaco and Monte Cassino in Italy. These were destroyed by the barbarian invasions but a few manuscripts of his Rule survived and were carried by refugees to other monasteries in Rome, North Italy, and Gaul (modern day France). In the course of two centuries the use of the Rule spread, and it was largely due to the influence of Charlemagne that it acquired a monopoly in the West. In this way, St Benedict came to be considered the founder of the 'Black Monks' of the Middle Ages, called from that time the ‘Order of St Benedict’.

In the fourteenth century, in an attempt to improve the observance in Benedictine monasteries, the Fourth Lateran Council advocated the setting up of Provincial Chapters, from which emerged some national congregations. In the fifteenth century the Congregation of St Justina of Padua, afterwards called the Cassinese Congregation was established. From it sprang our own congregation which was approved by Pope Blessed Pius IX in 1867, under the title Cassinese Congregation of the Primative Observance, afterwards the Subiaco Congregation. The Abbot President of the Subiaco Congregation resides at the Congregation’s Curial house, Sant Ambrogio in Rome.

With the Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII 'Summum Semper' given on the 12th July 1893, the Congregations of the Order were united into a confederation in an attempt to centralise the Order. The Benedictine Confederation, which numbers twenty congregations, is presided over by the Abbot Primate. The Abbot Primate is elected to a primacy of honour by his fellow abbots and conventual priors from throughout the world, and resides at the monastery of Sant' Anselmo in Rome.

In the years 1860-61, with the help of Mr Alfred Luck, a wealthy and devout benefactor, the monastery of St Augustine of Canterbury was built, the first Benedictine monastery to be built in England since the Reformation. Shortly afterwards a full monastic observance was established. The monastery gained independence from Subiaco in 1876, becoming a Priory in 1881 and was raised to the status of an Abbey by Pope Blessed Pius IX in 1896. A school was established for in 1865, which grew to provide to a Catholic education for boys for well over 130 years, finally closing in 1995.

Monks from St Augustine's were responsible for many churches and Convent chaplaincies on the Isle of Thanet until the 1960s. The Community's primary work is the glorification of God seven times a day in the celebration of the Divine Office and the sacred Liturgy. The monks provide chaplains to three convents of religious sisters, apiculture, the production of organic cosmetics and skin care products, the compilation of The Book of Saints, and the running of a Guest House in which male retreatants are accommodated.


Monastic life at Ramsgate has always been characterised by the apostolic and contemplative zeal of Abbot Casaretto, in imitation of St Augustine of Canterbury to whom our monastery is dedicated, who landed at Ebbsfleet, a very short distance from where our Abbey stands, with his band of forty monks in 597 to bring Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons. Our life still combines the contemplative life with the pastoral fervour of our forefathers. Through the great Benedictine tradition of prayer and work, we endeavour to witness to the presence of Christ's Kingdom in this historic centre of English Christianity.

The Benedictine Order

Each independent house of the Order is a separate family ruled by an Abbot and has its own novitiate. The work of each house is centred on the Divine Office or public prayer, recited or sung in choir at regular intervals throughout the day. This work is common to and characteristic of all Benedictine houses, whether of monks or nuns.

A choir monk after his profession may be ordained priest, once he has completed his novitiate, two years of philosophy and four years of theology, but this need not always be the case. Indeed, there is no evidence to suggest that St Benedict was ordained.

Through the centuries since, the Order has spread to all continents. Although all the monasteries base their life on St Benedict’s Holy Rule, local conditions and the varying types of each climate made it inevitable that certain modifications and applications would be found necessary. St Benedict in fact makes provision for this in the Rule, authorising the Abbot to adapt the Divine Office, the measure of food and drink and so on, according to local conditions. These modifications and applications of the Rule, often being influenced by local or spiritual considerations were eventually drawn up as 'constitutions' on the Rule, which were then ratified by the Holy See.
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