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Sylvestrines

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Sylvestrine Congregation
Emblem of the Sylvestrine Congregation of the Benedictine Order
Emblem of the Sylvestrine Congregation of the Benedictine Order
Abbreviation O.S.B. Silv.
Formation c. AD 1231
Founder Sylvester Gozzolini
Type Catholic religious order
Headquarters Italy
Website silvestrini.org

The Sylvestrines are a congregation of monks of the Order of St Benedict who form the Sylvestrine Congregation. The Sylvestrines use the post-nominal initials O.S.B. Silv.. The congregation was founded in 1231 by Sylvester Gozzolini. They are members of the Benedictine Confederation. The congregation is similar to others of eremitical origin, in that their houses are not raised to the status of an abbey, which would entangle the monasteries more strongly in the affairs of the world. The congregation, though, is led by an abbot general, the only abbot it has, who supervises all the houses of the congregation.

History

Sylvester Gozzolini (1177–1267) was born at Osimo near Ancona, Italy. As a young man, he entered a community of Augustinian canons regular who served Osimo Cathedral, and eventually was professed in that Order and received Holy Orders. Around 1227, he left the community to lead an austere, eremitical life. Disciples flocked to him, however, and in 1231 he built a hermitage by the mountain of Montefano in the March of Ancona (near the town of Fabriano). The congregation was approved in 1247 by Pope Innocent IV as the Ordo S. Benedicti de Montefano.[1]

The community that Sylvester founded followed the Rule of St. Benedict, but, as regards poverty in external matters, was far stricter than the general Benedictines of the time. At Sylvester's death in 1267, there were eleven Sylvestrine monasteries.[2] At their peak, there were 56 monasteries in the congregation, mostly in Umbria and Tuscany, as well as in the March of Ancona. The Church of San Marco in Florence belonged to the Sylvestrines, but in 1437, through the efforts of Cosimo de' Medici, they were displaced in favor of the Dominicans and moved to the smaller San Giorgio alla Costa.[3][4]

Like all religious communities in Europe, the Sylvestrines suffered throughout the 19th century from the upheavals of the French Revolutionary Army and the later unification of Italy. Their principal house was the Monastery of Santo Stefano del Cacco in Rome, dedicated to St. Stephen the Protomartyr, which was founded in 1563 to serve as the motherhouse of the congregation. Notable Sylvestrine include the founder, Sylvester Gozzolini, Bl. Giovanni del Bastonne, and the Bl. Giuseppe and Ugo di Serra San Quirico.[2]

Expansion

For most of its history, the Congregation was confined to Italy. The Ceylon Mission was begun in 1845,[5] their first foundation outside Europe. The Sylvestrines provided many of the clergy for that missionary diocese well into the 20th century.

Additionally, they have monasteries in the United States, the first being established in Atchison, Kansas, where two monks arrived in 1910 and served the spiritual needs of the many workers in the coal industry there. As that industry faded and the local population began to move away, they looked elsewhere to build a permanent home. They were welcomed into the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1928, where they built their first monastery in the country in 1938, St Benedict of Oxford Monastery, which serves as the orders headquarters in the United States.[6] There is a daughter house Holy Face Monastery in Clifton, New Jersey.[7]

A conventual priory was founded in 1962 in Australia at Arcadia, Sydney, Australia, by an Italian monk serving in Sri Lanka. Now, there are also monasteries in India. In the late 20th century, a foundation was set up in the Philippines[8] and, more recently, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Present day

The Sylvestrine monks operated as a completely autonomous congregation for most of their history, until they joined the Benedictine Confederation in 1973. This placed the congregation under the general supervision of the abbot primate of the Benedictine Order and joined them to the life of the entire Order throughout the world. As of 2020, there are three monasteries in Italy (Montefano, Bassano, and Giulianova).

On 28 May 2019, Father Antony Puthenpurackal OSB of Saint Joseph’s Conventual Priory, Makkiyad, India became abbot general of the congregation.[9]

The habit is dark blue, as compared to the standard black worn by most other Benedictines.

Saints, Blesseds, and other holy people

Saints

Blesseds

  • Filippo da Varano di Recanati[11] (13th century), one of Silvestro Guzzolini's first disciples, declared Blessed by popular acclaim.
  • Giovanni della Cella (aka Giovanni Solitario)[12] (13th century), hermit, declared Blessed by popular acclaim.
  • Ugo de Actis (c. 1227 - 26 July 1270), monk, beatified on 27 July 1757.[13]
  • Giuseppe degli Atti de Actis (died 24 August 1273?), Second Prior of the Order and brother of Ugo degli Atti, declared Blessed by popular acclaim.[14]
  • Giovanni dal Bastone (24 March 1200 – 24 March 1290), monk, beatified on 29 August 1772.
  • Bartolo di Cingoli (first half of the 13th century - 3 August 1298), Third Prior of the Order, declared Blessed by popular acclaim.[14]
  • Benvenuto da Piticchio di Acervia (died unknown), monk, declared Blessed by popular acclaim.[14]
  • Giacomo da Attigio da Fabriano (died unknown), monk, declared Blessed by popular acclaim but no official cult.[14]
  • Bonaparte (died unknown), monk, declared Blessed by popular acclaim but no official cult.[14]
  • Simone da Ripalta (13th century - 14th century), monk and one of Silvestro Guzzolini's first disciples, declared Blessed by popular acclaim.[14]

Venerables

  • Alfredo (Ildebrando) Gregori (8 May 1894 - 12 November 1985), founder of the Benedictine Reparatrix Sisters of the Holy Face, declared Venerable on 7 November 2014[15]

Servants of God

  • Bernardo Regno (18 August 1886 - 22 August 1977),[16] Bishop of Kandy

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

A minor monastic order or, strictly speaking, congregation following in general the Rule of St. Benedict but distinct from the Black monks and not forming a part of the confederation of Benedictine congregations. The Sylvestrines were founded by St. Sylvester Gozzolini on Monte Fano near Fabriano in 1231. The Rule of St. Benedict was observed in its primitive form, but in many points the founder went considerably beyond it in point of austerity, laying special stress on the strictest observance of poverty. At the death of St. Sylvester in 1267 eleven monasteries were under his leadership of which some had been founded by him, while others, though of older foundation, had adopted his institute. The congregation had been formally sanctioned by Innocent IV twenty years before the founder's death. Except for a few houses in Portugal and Brazil and the Ceylon foundation mentioned below, there have been no Sylvestrine monasteries outside Italy. Under St. Sylvester's immediate successors in the generalship, Giuseppe della Serra Quirico (d. 1258), Blessed Bartolomeo di Cingoli (d. 1298), and Andrea Giacomo di Fabriano, the biographer of the founder, a number of houses were founded in the March of Ancona, Tuscany, and Umbria. Since 1568 the congregation has possessed at Rome the Church of San Stefano del Cacco in the neighbourhood of the Pantheon; the first possession of the Sylvestrines in Rome was the Church of San Giacomo in Settimania (or alla Lungara), granted to St. Sylvester himself by the Chapter of St. Peter's.

At the present day, besides the Roman monastery at San Stefano, which is the residence of the abbot-general and counts as the mother-house of the order, the Sylvestrines have monasteries at Fabriano, Sasso Ferrato, Perugia, Osimo, Serra San Quirico, and Matelica. Since 1855 they have also had a large mission in Ceylon with its headquarters in the Abbey of Saint Antony at Kandy. At the present day (1911) the congregation numbers some 100 members, of whom about 70 are choir monks; of the total about 40 are in Ceylon. The chief Sylvestrine saints are: the founder, St. Bonfilius, Bl. Giovanni del Bastonne, and the Bl. Giuseppe and Ugo di Serra San Quirico. The congregation is governed by an abbot- general assisted by a vicar; the head of each monastery is a prior or titular abbot. These officials were formerly elected for life, they were made triennial by Paul II in 1543, but since 1690 have been elected every four years. The Constitutions are still those which were confirmed by Alexander VIII in 1690 after the severance of the short-lived union between the Sylvestrine and Vallombrosan orders (1662-80). The Sylvestrine habit is similar in form to that of the Cassinese Benedictines but blue in colour; fasts are strictly observed and flesh meat is never eaten except in case of illness. A convent of Sylvestrine nuns was founded at Serra San Quirico during the lifetime of the founder, but the only convent now under Sylvestrine rule is that of San Benedetto in Perugia. The arms of the order are three green hills on a blue ground, surmounted by a golden crozier with two rose branches in flower at its side.

There is no satisfactory history of the order. The above is taken from HEIMBUCHER, Orden u. Kongregationen, I (2nd ed., Paderborn, 1907); HELYOT, Histoire des ordres monastiques, VI (Paris, 1859); FABRINI, Breve Cronica della Congregazione de' Monachi Silvestrini (Rome, 1706); Constituzioni della Congregazione di S. Benedetto di Monte Fano (Camerino, 1610; Rome, 1690).

Raymund Webster.

References

  1. Back to citation Eder, Manfred (2006). "Sylvestrines". Religion Past and Present: Encyclopedia of Theology and Religion. ISBN 978-9-0041-4666-2.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Webster, Douglas Raymund. "Sylvestrines". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 30 January 2014.
  3. Back to citation Leader, Anne (2012). "The Badia of Florence: Art and Observance in a Renaissance Monastery". Indiana University Press. p. 95. ISBN 9780253355676
  4. Back to citation Brown, James Wood (1907). The Builders of Florence. E.P. Dutton. p. 408.
  5. Back to citation Navajeevan Silvestro-Benedictine Monastery, Vijayawada, India.
  6. Back to citation St. Benedict Monastery, Oxford, Michigan.
  7. Back to citation Holy Face Monastery, Clifton, New Jersey.
  8. Back to citation "Address of Pope John Paul II to the Sylvestrine Benedictines". (2001)
  9. Back to citation "Sylvestrine Congregation Elects New Abbot General" (Press release). Order of St. Benedict. May 29, 2019.
  10. Back to citation "Equipollent Canonizations". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  11. Back to citation "Beato Filippo da Varano". Santiebeati.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  12. Back to citation "Beato Giovanni Solitario - 31-08 - Monastero S.Vincenzo M." Liturgia della settimana (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  13. Back to citation "Confirmation of Cultus (2)". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  14. Back to citation occurrence 14.0 Back to citation occurrence 14.1 Back to citation occurrence 14.2 Back to citation occurrence 14.3 Back to citation occurrence 14.4 Back to citation occurrence 14.5 "Santità Silvestrina - Don Damiano Grenci". www.cartantica.it. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  15. Back to citation "1985". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  16. Back to citation "Bishop Bernardo Regno [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
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