Benedictine Men and Women of Courage

Acclaimed as a significant treasury of monastic history, this fast-paced book surveys a vast landscape of saints, scholars, mystics, and reformers whose impact continues to shape worldwide Christianity and monastic life. Sr Ann Kessler OSB engages readers with a comprehensive description of the history of Benedictine monasticism from the earliest beginnings to challenges facing the present day. The story unfolds as a sweeping panorama of intrigue, controversy, and commitment across the fifteen-century development of both men's and women's communities. The chronicle's broad lens provides an inspiring vision of endurance as monks and nuns established their lasting, global presence through fifteen centuries of growth and adaptation. Often beset by overwhelming challenges from both within and outside its walls, Benedictine monasticism has shone with human magnificence at times but has been dimmed by the follies of human frailty at others. Reform movements, congregations, and spiritualities have often reshaped Benedictine life, countering seasons of pervasive decline through centuries of political instability, wars, religious censure, suppression, dissolution and societal turmoil. Filled with sometimes surprising turns of events, this lively history offers insight not only into the past, but also into how to approach the emerging future.

Lean Scholar, 2014, ISBN 978-0990449713, 518pp.