In the story of Irish monasticism, one chapter has been curiously neglected: the Irish Benedictine tradition has never attracted the historian’s attention. This volume seeks to redress this by providing for the first time a comprehensive survey of the ways in which Irish men and women have sought, and continue to seek, God by following the Rule of St Benedict.
In a scholarly but accessible fashion, these essays – taken from the first Glenstal history conference – celebrate and explore the stories of these Irish Benedictines over a period of 1400 years. Their following of ‘the path of the Lord’s commands’ brought them across Dark Age Europe, through Reformation England, war-torn Europe and into modern Africa. In exile and persecution they established centres of learning and refuge; returning to Ireland they continue to devote themselves to these activities, seeking to glorify God in all things.
Eds. Martin Browne OSB, Colmán O Clabaigh OSB monks of Glenstal Abbey