Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
We need your help to achieve Our Give, Send, Go goal by the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. If you have not donated, please do so as generously as possible and encourage like-minded family and friends to do the same. In our last two newsletters we falsified the popular notion that competition serves as an engine of evolutionary progress, showing instead that cooperation has been written into the design of living things in every part of the biosphere. In this newsletter we will see how cooperation has also characterized the greatest achievements of Catholic civilization, achievements which the rise of protestant individualism, neo-paganism, Enlightenment philosophy, and the separation of state from Church have undermined or destroyed throughout the once-Christian world.
In his recent book, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, Dr. Thomas Woods documents the amazing practical achievements of the Latin Rite monasteries from the fall of the Western Roman Empire until the end of the Middle Ages. Catholic monasticism, especially in its Benedictine expression, ennobled manual labor and removed the stigma that had been attached to it by most pagan societies. The sanctification of manual labor also led to the abolition of slavery for the first time in the fourteenth century under Louis X in the Kingdom of France.
Woods demonstrates that the Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe formed a network of technological innovators, who revolutionized and largely mechanized agriculture. The monks reclaimed and made fruitful enormous tracts of unused land, turning them into prosperous farms that excelled in the art and science of agriculture, beekeeping, wine-making, and the scientific breeding of livestock. The monks also pioneered in the arts of metallurgy, mining, quarrying, and glass making. By the twelfth century, the Cistercian monasteries of Western Europe had their own factories where the monks used water powered machinery to process wheat, cloth, and leather. Indeed, the history of the Cistercian Reform of the Benedictine monasteries serves as an amazing example of the superiority of cooperation over competition in the improvement of economic and social life and in the advancement of the Kingdom of God. In the words of the Catholic Encyclopedia:
The diffusion of the new order was chiefly effected by means of foundations. Nevertheless several congregations and monasteries, which had existed before the Order of Cîteaux, became affiliated to it, among them the Congregations of Savigny and Obazine, which were incorporated in the order in 1147. St. Bernard and other Cistercians took a very active part, too, in the establishment of the great military orders, and supplied them with their constitutions and their laws. Among these various orders of chivalry may be mentioned the Templars, the Knights of Calatrava, of St. Lazarus, of Alcantara, of Avis, of St. Maurice, of the Wing of St. Michael, of Montessa, etc. In 1152 the Order of Cîteaux already counted 350 abbeys, not including the granges and priories dependent upon the principal abbeys. Among the causes which contributed to this prosperity of the new order, the influence of St. Bernard evidently holds the first place; in the next place comes the perfect unity which existed between the monasteries and the members of every house, a unity wonderfully maintained by the punctual assembling of general chapters, and the faithful performance of the regular visits. The general chapter was an assembly of all the abbots of the order, even those who resided farthest from Cîteaux. This assembly, during the Golden Age, took place annually, according to the prescriptions of the Charter of Charity. “This Cistercian Areopagus”, says the author of the “Origines Cistercienses”, “with equal severity and justice kept watch over the observance of the Rule of St. Benedict, the Charter of Charity and definitions of the preceding Chapters.” The collection of statutes published by Dom Martene informs us that there was no distinction of persons made. After a fault became known, the same justice was meted out to lay brothers, monks, and abbots, and the first fathers of the order. Thus, as all were firmly persuaded that their rights would be protected with equal justice, the collection of statutes passed by the general chapter were consulted and respected in all the monasteries without exception. All the affairs of the order, such as differences between abbots, purchase and sale of property, incorporation of abbeys, questions relating to the laws rites, feasts, tributes, erection of colleges, etc. were submitted to the general chapter in which resided the supreme authority of the order. Other orders took these general chapters as models of their own, either spontaneously, like the Premonstratensians, or by decree of the Fourth Lateran Council, that the religious orders should adopt the practice of holding general chapters and follow the form used by the Order of Cîteaux . . . Every abbey was visited once a year by the abbot of the house on which it immediately depended. Cîteaux was visited by the four first fathers, that is to say, by the Abbots of La Ferté, of Pontigny, of Clairvaux, and Morimond.
“The Visitor”, say the ancient statutes, “will urge the Religious to greater respect for their Abbot, and to remain more and more united among themselves by the bonds of mutual love for Jesus Christ’s sake . . . The Visitor ought not to be a man who will easily believe every one indiscriminately, but he should investigate with care those matters of which he has no knowledge, and, having ascertained the truth, he should correct abuses with prudence, uniting his zeal for the Order with his feelings of sincere paternal affection. On the other hand, the Superior visited ought to show himself submissive to, and full of confidence in, the Visitor, and do all in his power to reform his house, since one day he will have to render an account to the Lord. . . [The Abbot] will avoid both before the Visitor and after his departure everything that will have the appearance of revenge, reproach or indignation against any of them” [sc. his subjects]. If the visitor should act against prescriptions, he was to be corrected and punished according to the gravity of his fault by the abbot who was his superior, or by another abbot, or even by the general chapter. Likewise, the abbot visited should know that he would become grievously culpable before God by neglecting the regular form of visit, and that he would deserve to be called to account by his “Father Immediate” or by the general chapter.
Thus everything was foreseen and provided for the maintenance of good order and charity and for the preservation of the unity of observance and spirit. “No one then ought be astonished”, says the author of “Origines Cistercienses”, “to find in the Cistercian abbeys, during their Golden Age, so many sanctuaries of the most fervent prayer, of the severest discipline, as well as of untiring and constant labour. This explains also why, not only persons of humble and low extraction, but also eminent men, monks and abbots of other orders, doctors in every science and clerics honoured with the highest dignities, humbly begged the favour of being admitted into the Order of Cîteaux.” Thus it was during this period that the order produced the greatest number of saints, blessed, and holy persons. Many abbeys — such as Clairvaux, Villiers, Himmerod, Heisterbach, etc. — were so many nurseries of saints. More than forty have been canonized by the Holy See. The Order of Cîteaux constantly enjoyed the favour of the Holy See, which in numerous Bulls bestowed upon the Cistercians the highest praise, and rewarded with great privileges their services to the Church. They enjoyed the favour of sovereigns, who, having entire confidence in them, entrusted to them, like Frederick II, important delegations; or, like Alphonsus I of Portugal, placed their persons and kingdoms under the care and protection of Our Lady of Clairvaux; or again, like Frederick II, feeling themselves near the point of death, wished to die clothed in the Cistercian habit.
The Cistercians benefited society by their agricultural labours. According to Dr. Janauscheck, “none but the ignorant or men of bad faith are capable of denying the merited praises which the sons of St. Benedict have received for their agricultural labours throughout Europe, or that this part of the world owes to them a greater debt of gratitude than to any other colony no matter how important it may be.” They also conferred great benefits on society by the exercise of Christian charity. By means of their labours, their economy, their privations, and sometimes owing to generous donations which it would be ungrateful to despise, they became more or less rich in the things of this world, and expended their wealth upon the instruction of the ignorant, the promotion of letters and arts, and the relief of their country’s necessities. Caesarius of Heisterbach speaks of a monastery in Westphalia where one day all the cattle were killed, the chalices and books pledged as security, in order to relieve the poor. The Cistercian abbeys had a house for the reception of the poor, and an infirmary for the sick, and in them all received a generous hospitality and remedies for the ills of soul and body.
Intellectual labour had also its place in the life of the Cistercians. Charles de Visch, in his “Bibliotheca Scriptorum Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis”, published in 1649, devotes 773 historical and critical notices to authors who belonged to the Cistercian Order. Even in the very first period, St. Stephen Harding left a work on the Bible which is superior to anything of its kind produced by any contemporary monastery, not excepting Cluny. The Library of Dijon preserves the venerable manuscript of St. Stephen, which was to serve as a type for all Cistercian Bibles. The Cistercian libraries were rich in books and manuscripts. Nor did the sons of St. Bernard neglect the fine arts; they exercised their genius in building, contributed powerfully to the development and propagation of the Romanesque and the Gothic architecture throughout Europe, and cultivated the arts of painting and engraving.
The use of the Latin language throughout the West facilitated the exchange of ideas throughout the Latin Church, especially by the superiors of monastic communities from all over Western Europe at their regular meetings. According to one expert in the industrial achievements of the late medieval monasteries, Gerry McDonnell, British monasteries on the eve of the Protestant Reformation “had the potential to move to blast furnaces that produced nothing but cast iron. They were poised to do it on a large scale, but by breaking up the virtual monopoly, Henry VIII effectively broke up that potential.” The Latin practical genius also found expression in the applied geometry of the medieval Gothic cathedrals, in the experimental methods of such men as Robert Grosseteste, Francis Bacon, and St. Albert the Great, in the anatomical research and discoveries of medieval scientists, and in the atmosphere of free and spirited inquiry fostered by the Latin universities and cathedral centers, such as the renowned scientific community of William of Thierry at Chartres. As Woods demonstrates, it was this development of communities of inquiring minds, encouraging practical experimentation, and the application of knowledge derived from mathematics and natural science that laid the foundations for the explosion of technology and new discoveries in the natural sciences in the modern era. The flowering of Catholic culture in the Middle Ages was not the result of competition. It was the fruit of centuries of cooperation in the service of God and neighbor, especially by men and women consecrated to God as priests and religious, whose lives were dedicated, not to using their talents for self-aggrandizement, but to building up the Kingdom of God.
The protestant revolution devastated the monastic culture which formed the backbone of Catholic civilization throughout Christendom, pillaged its lands and resources, and set the stage for an individualistic money-based economy in nation-states progressively divorced from the influence of the Church. While Latin remained the language of learned men throughout the once-Christian world for centuries, the rise of English as the lingua franca of the world coincided with the rise of Anglo-American political and economic power, placed at the service of an evolution-based secular humanist and increasingly globalist ideology, almost completely divorced from the traditional Catholic Faith that built Christian civilization.
As we work and pray for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart promised by Our Lady of Fatima, may we strive to build up the traditional Catholic community throughout the world, through the Christ the King Service Network and through other networks that will allow us to build up the Kingdom of God with every transaction and through every kind of cooperation with our brothers and sisters throughout the world. As an example of the kind of cooperative initiatives that members of the Kolbe family are taking around the world, one of our supporters is about to launch a Catholic alternative to Air b n b which will make it possible for Catholics to stay in blessed Catholic lodgings, surrounded by sacred art, without having to worry about indirectly supporting pornography and other abominations available in almost all hotels. Like the hostels run by religious communities in past centuries, these accommodations will continue the tradition of Catholic hospitality while providing a fair return on investment for the proprietors and investors. If any of our readers would be interested in participating in this venture, either as proprietors or investors, please contact me at [email protected] and I will be happy to introduce you to the person in charge of this initiative.
Through the prayers of the Holy Theotokos, of Good St. Joseph, and of all the Holy Angels and Saints, may the Holy Ghost guide us into all the Truth!
In Domino,
Hugh Owen
P.S. One of the members of the Kolbe family pointed out that there is probably no better example of God’s cooperative design in nature than the society of honey bees. She sent me a very good presentation on the divinely-designed social life of honey bees which can be viewed at this link. No fairy tale could possibly compare with an evolutionary account of the origin of the society of honey bees!
