Olivetans

File:Portrait of an Olivetan Monk - Battista Franco (attributed).jpg

Depiction of an Olivetan monk, 16th century

The Olivetans, formally known as the Order of Our Lady of Mount Olivet, are a monastic order. They were founded in 1313 and recognised in 1344. They use the Rule of Saint Benedict and are a member of the Benedictine Confederation, where they are also known as the Olivetan Congregation, but are distinguished from the Benedictines in their white habit and centralized organisation. They use the post-nominals OSB Oliv.

History

Foundation

The Olivetans were founded in 1313 by Bernardo Tolomei (born Giovanni Tolomei) along with two of his friends from the noble families of Siena, Patrizio Patrizi and Ambrogio Piccolomini. They initially lived as hermits in the "savage waste of Accona". The building of the monastery here began with the approbation of the foundation charter by Guido Tarlati, bishop of Arezzo (26 March 1319).

The name "Olivetan" comes from the name of the order's original hermitage, called Monte Oliveto in honour of Christ's Passion. The monastery later became known as "Monte Oliveto Maggiore" ("greater") to distinguish it from successive foundations at Florence, San Gimignano, Naples and elsewhere. It is still the motherhouse of the order or congregation.

After the arrival of a number of new followers, the nascent community adopted the Rule of St. Benedict and was recognised by Pope Clement VI in 1344. In 1408 Gregory XII gave them the extinct monastery of St. Justina at Padua, which they occupied until the institution there of the Benedictine reform.

Today

Unlike many other Benedictine congregations, the Olivetans have a centralized structure, supervised by the abbot general at Monte Oliveto Maggiore. Olivetan Benedictines wear a white habit.

The Olivetan monks run Bec Abbey in France, which was left in ruins in 1792 by the French Revolution. In 1948 Olivetans from the Monastery of Our Lady of Holy Hope at Mesnil-Saint-Loup and the Monastery of the Virgin Mary at Cormeilles-en-Parisis re-established the monastery at Bec.

In 1955, Benedictine monks from St. Benedict's Abbey in Wisconsin took over the former Trappist monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey in Pecos, New Mexico. In 1985, the monastery became part of the Olivetan congregation. The abbey offers retreats and spiritual direction.

The Monastery of Christ Our Saviour was founded in 1980 in the village of Turvey Abbey, Bedfordshire. Adjacent to the monastery is the Priory of Our Lady of Peace of Olivetan Benedictine nuns. The monastery and the priory share worship services. While the monks have no outside apostolate, guests are welcome. The priory is not open to the public, but the chapel is open and visitors are welcome.

The Congregation also maintain abbeys and prioral churches in Italy, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Israel, Korea, Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil. In 1960 they formed the Olivetan Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.

Olivetan nuns and sisters

Olivetan nuns are distinguished from the sisters in that the nuns focus primarily on the Divine Office according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, while the sisters engage in outside apostolates such as religious education or pastoral care, and therefore follow a modified form of the rule.

In 1874, Benedictine sisters from the Convent of Maria Rickenbach in the Canton of Unterwalden, Switzerland, arrived as teachers in Maryville, Missouri. Shortly thereafter some of the sisters were sent to Arkansas. In 1893 the Arkansas community affiliated with the Olivetans. In 1900, they opened St. Bernard's Hospital in Jonesboro.

In popular culture

The Prophecy of St. Malachy is a supposed list of 112 popes beginning in 1143 with Pope Celestine II and continuing apparently to the end of time. It was allegedly discovered around 1595 by Benedictine monk Arnold de Wyon, who attributes it to the 12th century Malachy of Armagh. Each pope is identified with a short cryptic motto. The next to last pope has the motto Gloria oliuæ (Glory of the olive).

After the election of Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy in 2005, proponents of the prophecy connected him to the cited entry for the next to last pope: Ratzinger chose the name Benedict; one of the Benedictine congregations is the Olivetans, thus, Gloria oliuæ.

However, there is no particular connection between the Olivetan Order and Pope Benedict XVI. In 1139, Malachy visited Rome, stopping at Clairvaux Abbey both on the way and on his return. His contemporary, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a vita of St. Malachy, providing many interesting anecdotes, but does not mention any prophecy. Reputable church historians since the 18th century have considered "The Prophecy of St. Malachy" a forgery, most likely written around 1590. Most scholars consider the document a 16th-century elaborate hoax, bearing similarities to a 1557 history of the popes by Onofrio Panvinio, including mistakes.

Thomas Groome, of Boston College said, "...the 'Prophecies of St. Malachy' are a grand old fun tale that have about as much reliability as the morning horoscope".

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Olivetans — A branch of the white monks of the Benedictine Order, founded in 1319. It owed its origin to the ascetic fervour of Giovanni Tolomei (St. Bernard Ptolomei), a gentleman of Siena and professor of philosophy. He is said to have vowed himself to religion in gratitude for the recovery of his eyesight through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. In fulfilment of this vow he left his home (1313) and went into the wilderness, to forsake the world and give himself to God. Two companions of his, Ambrogio Piccolomini and Patricio Patrici, Sienese senators, accompanied him. They settled on a bit of land belonging to Tolomei. It was a mountain top, exactly suited to the eremitical life. Here they devoted themselves to austerities. Apparently they were somewhat aggressive in their asceticism; for, six years later, they were accused of heresy and summoned to give an explanation of their innovations before John XXII at Avignon. The two disciples-Tolomei remained behind-obeyed the mandate and succeeded in gaining the good-will of the Holy Father, who, however, in order to bring them into line with other monks, bade them go to Guido di Pietromala, Bishop of Arezzo, and ask him to give them a Rule which had the approbation of the Church. The bishop remembered that once, in a vision or dream, Our Lady had put into his hands the Rule of St. Benedict and bade him give white habits to some persons who knelt before her. He did not doubt that these monks were the Sienese hermits commended to his care by the pope. Wherefore, he clothed the three of them with white habits and gave them the Benedictine Rule and placed them under the protection of the Blessed Virgin. Tolomei took the name of Bernard and their olive- clothed mountain hermitage was renamed "Monte Oliveto", in memory of Christ's agony and as a perpetual reminder to themselves of the life of sacrifice and expiatory penance they had undertaken.

Evidently, in what he did, the good bishop had before his mind the history of St. Romuald-there is even a repetition of the well- known "Vision of St. Romuald" in the story-and hoped, through the enthusiasm of Bernard and his monks, to witness another wide- spread monastic revival, like that which spread from the Hermitage of Camaldoli. He was not disappointed. Through the generosity of a merchant a monastery was erected at Siena; he himself built another at Arezzo; a third sprang up at Florence; and within a very few years there were establishments at Camprena, Volterra, San Geminiano, Eugubio, Foligno, and Rome. Before St. Bernard's death from the plague in 1348-he had quitted his monastery to devote himself to the care of those stricken with the disease and died a martyr of charity-the new congregation was already in great repute, as well for the number of its houses and monks as for the saintliness of its members and the rigour of its observance. Yet it never succeeded in planting itself successfully on the other side of the Alps.

St. Bernard Ptolomei's idea of monastic reform was that which had inspired every founder of an order or congregation since the days of St. Benedict-a return to the primitive life of solitude and austerity. Severe corporal mortifications were ordained by rule and inflicted in public. The usual ecclesiastical and conventual fasts were largely increased and the daily food was bread and water. The monks slept on a straw mattress without bed-coverings, and did not lie down after the midnight Office, but continued in prayer until Prime. They wore wooden sandals and habits of the coarsest stuff. They were also fanatical total abstainers; not only was St. Benedict's kindly concession of a hemina of wine rejected, but the vineyards were rooted up and the wine-presses and vessels destroyed. Attention has been called to this last particular, chiefly to contrast with it a provision of the later constitutions, in which the monks are told to keep the best wine for themselves and sell the inferior product ("meliora vina pro monachorum usu serventur, pejora vendantur") and, should they have to buy wine, to purchase only the better quality ("si vinum emendum erit, emetur illud quod melius erit"). Truly, relaxation was inevitable. It was never reasonable that the heroic austerities of St. Bernard and his companions should be made the rule, then and always, for every monk of the order. But the mandate concerning the quality of the wine chiefly aimed to remove any excuse for differential treatment of the monks in meat and drink. Where everything on the table was of exceptional quality, there could be no reason why anyone should be especially provided for. It was always the custom for each one to dilute the wine given him.

Though the foundation of the Olivetans was not professedly an introduction of constitutional reform among the Benedictines, it had that result. They were a new creation and hence, as we may see, up-to-date. They had a superior general, like the friars, and officials of the order distinct from those of the abbey. They set an example of adaptation to present needs by the frequent modification of their constitutions at the general chapters, and by the short term of office enjoyed by the superiors. In 1408 Gregory XII gave them the extinct monastery of St. Justina at Padua, which they occupied until the institution there of the famous Benedictine reform. This great movement out of which the present Cassinese Congregation resulted, may, therefore, in a very literal sense, be described as having followed in the footsteps of the Olivetans. At the present date, the Order of Our Lady of Mount Olivet numbers only 10 monasteries and 122 brethren.

HELYOT, Hist. des ordres monast.; MIGNE, Dict. des ordres relig.; LANCELOTTO, Hist. Olivetanae; BONANNI, Catalog. ord. relig.; CUMMINS, The Olivetan Constitutions in Ampleforth Journal (Dec., 1896).

From the 1922 Catholic Encyclopedia supplement

Olivetans (cf. C. E., XI—244d).—The sixth centenary of the foundation of the order was celebrated in 1919. At the general chapter held at Monte Oliveto in June, 1920, a new procurator general, Dom Lugano, was elected, and the election confirmed according to the rules formulated by Clement XII in 1733. Tha abbot general is Dom Mauro Parodi. The monastery of Lendinara, in the Diocese of Adria, was erected into an abbey by brief of 15 Dec., 1920, and Dom Celestino Mari Colombo, prior of the monastery and rector of the famous sanctuary of Notre Dame del Pilastrello, which adjoins it, was named abbot by the Pope himself and received the abbatial blessing from Bishop Rizzi, 21 Dec., 1920. This sanctuary, confided to the Olivetans, was erected into a minor basilica by Pius X, 15 Feb., 1911. In 1912 the Olivetans had 4 abbeys (3 in Italy and 1 in Carniola), 2 priories (in Italy), and 3 residences (2 in Italy and 1 in Istria). There were 124 members, of whom 72 were priests, 24 clerics and novices, and 28 Brothers. The French houses are now dispersed.

Bibliography

• Giuseppe Picasso. "La spiritualità dell'antico monachesimo alle origini di Monte Oliveto," in Giancarlo Andenna / Mirko Breitenstein / Gert Melville (eds.): Charisma und religiöse Gemeinschaften im Mittelalter. Akten des 3. Internationalen Kongresses des "Italienisch-deutschen Zentrums für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte". Münster / Hamburg / Berlin / London: LIT 2005 (Vita regularis. Ordnungen und Deutungen religiosen Lebens im Mittelalter, 26), 443–461.

External links

• Monte Oliveto Maggiore (in Italian)
• Order of St. Benedict Archived 2018-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Pope John Paul II. "Letter to the Olivetan Benedictines on the 650th anniversary of the death of Bernard Tolomei", 1 August 1998