When Societies Fall Apart, Christians Must Build Small Communities
FRANCE, JUL 11 – Dom Prosper Guéranger restored Benedictine monasticism and advanced key Catholic doctrines, influencing liturgical reform and Gregorian chant renewal in 19th-century France, experts say.
- St. Benedict composed the Rule around AD 530 as a practical guide for monastic life emphasizing prayer, work, and community amid societal crisis.
- He created this Rule after witnessing the decline of Roman civilization and observing the youth of Rome troubled by moral corruption and disorder.
- His Rule balances prayer and labor as complementary, promotes obedience, warns against idleness, and calls for living authentically with love of Christ first.
- St. Gregory the Great described Benedict as "a bright light" in a dark century, and Benedict himself exhorted monks to "listen carefully" and never despair of God's mercy.
- The Rule's enduring relevance suggests small, intentional communities can strengthen faith and virtue when societies face great disintegration.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Saint Benedict or Saint Benedict of Nursia is celebrated every July 11th. He is a religious figure who has devotees all over the world. He is a saint who is very important to the Catholic Church for having been the founder of the Western monastic, the patriarch of the monks of the West, as well as patron of Europe. He was a monk who after several years of imprisonment and a life alien to luxuries, decided to go out into the world to unite the re…


Spanish archbishop encourages Christians to read Rule of St. Benedict
St. Benedict. / Credit: Pietro Perugino via Wikimedia (Public domain) ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 11, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA). Archbishop Enrique Benavent Vidal of Valencia in Spain encouraged the faithful to take advantage of summer vacation to read a... [...]
How One Monk Began Rebuilding the West ~ The Imaginative Conservative
The life of Venerable Dom Prosper Guéranger, a Benedictine monk, is truly one of rebuilding the Church from the ruins of the French Revolution and the lingering corruption of the Gallicanism which preceded it. In an age of great disintegration, Guéranger can be a model of rebuilding for all of the faithful. July 11 is the feast of St. Benedict and the anniversary of the refounding of St. Peter’s Abbey of Solesmes, France in 1833 by Ven. Dom Pros…
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