Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 10)

At Saint Vincent Archabbey many of our monks are involved in our College Apostolate. Some serve as Professors in departments such as Theology, Philosophy, Mathematics, English, Science or Business, while others work in the Library or Campus Ministry. Needless to say, our Benedictine Heritage influences the way that we educate our students as a WHOLE human person, Body, Mind, and Soul.

Thus, this series of posts will focus on the 10 Hallmarks of a Benedictine Education. 

10. Community: call for service to the common good and respect for the individual

Benedictine monastic community is rooted in a particular place in which mutual service, especially
in the mundane areas of everyday life, is demanded of everyone with no other reward than the building up of the community. Yet for Benedictines community also stretches across time and place. There is an awareness of community with the past, with the millennia-old tradition, with past
community members and friends of the monastery, with the communion of saints. There is also
solidarity with other communities across the world, monastic and non-monastic, Christian and non-
Christian, religious and non-religious, that make practical efforts to foster human well-being. Though directly grounded in a particular place, the commitments and aspirations of Benedictine life are
catholic and universal, rather than provincial.

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Benedictine colleges and universities seek to enlist this practical focus on community building and
its profound openness to human history and global experience. It is our intent to make available to
all a focus on the nature of responsible living - a focus that is enriched by local example, grounded
in the wisdom of the past and refreshed by diverse experiences of other cultures. We attempt to
provide students with an experience of community, deepened by curricular and co-curricular
programs, to help them make the connection between the individual and the communal, the local
and the global, the present and the past.
Benedictine educational institutions seek to recognize the service their members give to promoting human well-being on campus, as well as off. It is our intent to commemorate the example and witness provided in the past, to celebrate human generosity wherever it is found, and to expand care and concern for our members on a regular basis.



for more on the Tenth Benedictine Value: 

http://www1.ben.edu/programs/centers_institutes/CMI/The%20Ten%20Hallmarks%20of%20Benedictine%20Education.pdf