Founders

Benedict of Nursia was born at Nursia (Italy) sent to Rome for studies. The dissolute life of the populace repelled him so he withdrew to a solitary life at Subiaco. Some monks asked him to be their abbot, but found his rule too strict. Later, other monks called him to be their abbot, and he agreed, founding twelve communities over an interval of some years. Benedict drew up a rule of life for monastics. The Rule gives instructions for how the monastic community is to be organized, and how the monks are to spend their time. A Benedictine monk takes vows of "obedience, stability, and conversion of life." That is, he vows to live in accordance with the Benedictine Rule, not to leave his community without grave cause, and to seek to follow the teaching and example of Christ in all things.

Teresa of Avila was a Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic. Shortly after her mother’s death (when Teresa was 15), Teresa was entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns. After reading the letters of St. Jerome, Teresa resolved to enter a religious life. She joined the Carmelite Order and spent a number of relatively average years in the convent, punctuated by a severe illness that left her legs paralyzed for three years. After this, she experienced a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ" that changed her life forever. From this point forward, Teresa moved into a period of increasingly ecstatic experiences in which she came to focus more and more sharply on Christ's passion. With these visions as her impetus, she set herself to the reformation of her order, beginning with her attempt to master herself and her adherence to the rule. Teresa struggled to establish and broaden the movement of Discalced or shoeless Carmelites. She met St. John of the Cross, who she enlisted to extend her reform into the male side of the Carmelite Order.

Nicholas Ferrar, a deacon, English theologian, man of prayer, was associated with the Virginia Company and, with his brother John, played a notable role in its affairs. He retired from Parliament and founded (1625) an austere religious community at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire; the community consisted of 30 persons engaged in charitable works and intense study of the Scriptures. It was visited and approved (1633) by Charles I, but it was later attacked as an "Arminian nunnery" because of its monastic tendencies and disbanded by Parliament in 1647.

Elizabeth Ann Seton

Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic church. In her 20s, Seton worked among the poor, founding the first charitable institution in New York City. After living in Italy for some time, she converted to Catholicism and later founded the first American religious society, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's. She also began St. Joseph's Academy and Free School, the first free Catholic School for girls staffed by Sisters in the United States. Her enduring legacy now includes six religious communities with more than 5,000 members, hundreds of schools, social service centers, and hospitals throughout America and around the world. She was canonized in 1975.

Richard Meux Benson

Richard Meux Benson was a priest in the Church of England and founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the first religious order of monks in the Anglican Communion since the Reformation. In 1858 Benson conducted a retreat for priests using material taken in part from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. The form of religious life instituted by Benson was not purely contemplative as its members engaged in active external ministry. From 1870 to 1883 the Society spread to the United States, India, and South Africa. During the creation of the Society, Benson had maintained his duties as a parish vicar. In 1886 he resigned this charge to devote all his attention to the Society and its mission.

Charles de Foucauld

His aristocratic French parents died while Charles de Foucauld was still quite young, leaving him a large fortune. He spent a rowdy youth, joined the military, and traveled among the Muslim populations of North Africa but remained an agnostic. Back in France, he embarked on a religious quest that led him frequently to stop in Catholic Churches to make this prayer: "God, if you exist, let me know it" which led to a profound conversion to Christ. He visited the Holy Land, and developed a profound love of Nazareth and devotion to the hidden, ordinary life of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. He entered the French Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of the Snows, from which he was assigned to work among Muslim manual laborers. He realized at this point that he was called not to be last as Jesus was, not first. After his ordination into the priesthood, he returned to North Africa and lived among the Touareg as a hermit. His time was spent in manual labor and translating the gospels into the Touareg language. He was murdered by a band of rebellious, anti-French tribesmen. A religious order of men and women have sprung from his witness, called respectively the Little Brothers and the Little Sisters of Jesus. There is also an association of diocesan priests that come from his influence, called Jesus Caritas.

Brother Roger

Born Roger Schutz in Provence, the son of a Swiss Calvinist pastor and a French Protestant mother, Brother Roger and a group of friends thought it might be possible to avert war in Europe if Christians could unite, so set up facilities in the village of Taizé where they took monastic vows. During World War II, the monks hid refugees, including Jews and resistance fighters. When forced to leave, the community moved to Geneva, quietly grew, then returned to Taizé. With his group of monks—including Lutheran, Anglican, Evangelical, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox members—he sought to create greater unity among Christian churches, but his focus above all was to awaken spirituality among the young people in Europe who were growing up in a secular world. Brother Roger shunned doctrine, and he and his fellow monks developed chants that merged the meditative prayers of Christian religions. At a 1995 gathering, he said, "We have come here to search or to go on searching through silence and prayer, to get in touch with our inner life. Christ always said, Do not worry, give yourself."