Editing Benedictines (section)

==Historical development==
{{Main|Benedict of Nursia}}
[[File:Fra Angelico 031.jpg|thumb|left|Saint Benedict of Nursia (c.&nbsp;480–543); detail from a [[fresco]] by [[Fra Angelico]] (c.&nbsp;1400–1455) in the [[San Marco, Florence|Friary of San Marco]] [[Florence]]]]

The monastery at [[Subiaco, Lazio|Subiaco]] in Italy, established by [[Benedict of Nursia]] {{circa}} 529, was the first of the dozen monasteries he founded. He later founded the [[Abbey of Monte Cassino]]. There is no evidence, however, that he intended to found an order and the [[Rule of Saint Benedict]] presupposes the autonomy of each community. When Monte Cassino was sacked by the Lombards about the year 580, the monks fled to Rome, and it seems probable that this constituted an important factor in the diffusion of a knowledge of Benedictine monasticism.<ref name="Catholic">{{cite CE1913 |wstitle=Benedictine Order |last=Alston |first=Cyprian |volume=2}}</ref>

Copies of Benedict's Rule survived; around 594 [[Pope Gregory I]] spoke favorably of it. The rule is subsequently found in some monasteries in southern Gaul along with other rules used by abbots.<ref>[https://www.osb.org/our-roots/a-brief-history-of-the-benedictine-order/ Oliver OSB, Richard . "A Brief History of the Benedictine Order", OSB.org]</ref> [[Gregory of Tours]] says that at [[Basilica of Saint-Martin d'Ainay#Ainay Abbey|Ainay Abbey]], in the sixth century, the monks "followed the rules of Basil, Cassian, Caesarius, and other fathers, taking and using whatever seemed proper to the conditions of time and place", and doubtless the same liberty was taken with the Benedictine Rule when it reached them. In Gaul and Switzerland, it gradually supplemented the much stricter Irish or Celtic Rule introduced by [[Columbanus]] and others. In many monasteries it eventually entirely displaced the earlier codes.<ref name="Catholic"/>
[[File:Abadía de Montecassino.jpg|thumb|Abbey of [[Monte Cassino]]]]

By the ninth century, however, the Benedictine had become the standard form of monastic life throughout the whole of Western Europe, excepting Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, where the Celtic observance still prevailed for another century or two.<ref name="Catholic"/> Largely through the work of [[Benedict of Aniane]], it became the rule of choice for monasteries throughout the Carolingian empire.<ref name="Theisen">{{Cite web|url=https://www.osb.org//gen/benedictines.html|title=The Benedictines: An Introduction by Abbot Primate Jerome Theisen OSB. Liturgical Press.|website=www.osb.org|access-date=19 July 2021|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326025422/https://www.osb.org//gen/benedictines.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Monastic scriptoria flourished from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Sacred Scripture was always at the heart of every monastic scriptorium. As a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole, active work. An anonymous writer of the ninth or tenth century speaks of six hours a day as the usual task of a scribe, which would absorb almost all the time available for active work in the day of a medieval monk.<ref name="CE1913_Scriptorium">{{cite CE1913 |last=Huddleston |first=Gilbert Roger |wstitle=Scriptorium |volume=13}}</ref>

In the Middle Ages monasteries were often founded by the nobility. [[Cluny Abbey]] was founded by [[William I, Duke of Aquitaine]], in 910. The abbey was noted for its strict adherence to the Rule of Saint Benedict. The abbot of Cluny was the superior of all the daughter houses, through appointed priors.<ref name=Theisen/>

One of the earliest reforms of Benedictine practice was that initiated in 980 by [[Romuald]], who founded the [[Camaldolese]] community.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=y |wstitle=Camaldulians |volume=5|pages=79–80 |first=Edward Cuthbert |last=Butler |author-link=Edward Cuthbert Butler}}</ref> The [[Cistercians]] branched off from the Benedictines in 1098; they are often called the "White monks".<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Cistercians|volume=6|pages=393–395|first=Edward Cuthbert|last=Butler|author-link=Edward Cuthbert Butler}}</ref>

The dominance of the Benedictine monastic way of life began to decline towards the end of the twelfth century, which saw the rise of the [[mendicant]] [[Franciscans]] and nomadic [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]].<ref name=Theisen/> Benedictines by contrast, took a vow of "stability", which professed loyalty to a particular foundation in a particular location. Not being bound by location, the mendicants were better able to respond to an increasingly "urban" environment. This decline was further exacerbated by the practice of appointing a commendatory abbot, a lay person, appointed by a noble to oversee and to protect the assets of the monastery. Often, however, this resulted in the appropriation of the assets of monasteries at the expense of the community which they were intended to support.<ref>{{CE1913 |inline=1 |last=Ott |first=Michael |wstitle=Commendatory Abbot |volume=4}}</ref>

===Austria & Germany===
[[File:Melk - Stift (2).JPG|thumb|[[Melk]] Abbey]]
[[Saint Blaise Abbey, Black Forest|Saint Blaise Abbey]] in the [[Black Forest]] of [[Baden-Württemberg]] is believed to have been founded around the latter part of the tenth century. Between 1070 and 1073 there seem to have been contacts between St. Blaise and the Cluniac [[Abbey of Fruttuaria]] in Italy, which led to St. Blaise following the Fruttuarian reforms. The [[Empress Agnes]] was a patron of Fruttuaria, and retired there in 1065 before moving to Rome. The Empress was instrumental in introducing Fruttuaria's Benedictine customs, as practiced at Cluny, to [[Saint Blaise Abbey, Black Forest|Saint Blaise Abbey]] in [[Baden-Württemberg]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QP8fNo5UNIYC&dq=Abbey+of+Fruttuaria&pg=PA126 Robinson, I. S., ''Henry IV of Germany 1056–1106'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 126]{{ISBN| 9780521545907}}</ref> Other houses either reformed by, or founded as priories of, St. Blasien were [[Muri Abbey]] (1082), [[Ochsenhausen Abbey]] (1093), [[Göttweig Abbey]] (1094), [[Stein am Rhein]] Abbey (before 1123) and [[Prüm Abbey]] (1132). It also had significant influence on the abbeys of [[Alpirsbach Abbey|Alpirsbach]] (1099), [[Ettenheim]]münster (1124) and [[Sulzburg]] ({{Circa|1125}}), and the priories of Weitenau (now part of [[Steinen, Baden-Württemberg|Steinen]], {{Circa|1100}}), [[Bürgel Abbey|Bürgel]] (before 1130) and [[Kandern#Sitzenkirch|Sitzenkirch]] ({{Circa|1130}}).

===France===
[[File:Eglise abbatiale Saint-Benoit - Ensemble sud - Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire - Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine - APMH00003809.jpg|thumb|[[Fleury Abbey|Abbatiale Saint-Benoit]], southern aspect as in 1893]]
[[File:Basilique Saint-Martin d'Ainay I.jpg|thumb|Basilica of Saint-Martin d'Ainay]]
[[Fleury Abbey]] in [[Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire]], [[Loiret]] was founded in about 640.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Butler|first=Alban|title=The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume 3|year=1845|location=Dublin|pages=218}}</ref> It is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, and possesses the relics of St. Benedict. Like many Benedictine abbeys it was located on the banks of a river, here the [[Loire]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abbaye-fleury.com/index2.htm |title=Abbaye de Fleury |access-date=2010-06-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100816070746/http://www.abbaye-fleury.com/index2.htm |archive-date=2010-08-16 }}</ref> Ainey Abbey is a ninth century foundation on the [[Lyon]] peninsula. In the twelfth century on the current site there was a [[Romanesque architecture|romanesque monastery]], subsequently rebuilt.

The seventeenth century saw a number of Benedictine foundations for women, some dedicated to the indigent to save them from a life of exploitation, others dedicated to the [[Perpetual Adoration]] of the [[Blessed Sacrament]] such as the one established by [[Mechtilde of the Blessed Sacrament|Catherine de Bar]] (1614–1698).<ref name=silver>[https://www.cenacleosb.org/mother-mectilde "Mother Mectilde De Bar", Silverstream Priory]</ref> In 1688 Dame Mechtilde de Bar assisted [[Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien]], queen consort of Poland, to establish a Benedictine foundation in [[Warsaw]].<ref>{{Cite web | url =https://www.mechtylda.info/zyciorys/fundacja-w-warszawie/ | title = Fundacja w Warszawie| author = | website =mechtylda.info | date = 18 December 2013| language =pl | access-date = 2020-09-02}}</ref>

Abbeys were among the institutions of the Catholic Church swept away during the [[French Revolution]]. Monasteries and convents were again allowed to form in the 19th century under the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]]. Later that century, under the [[Third French Republic]], laws were enacted preventing religious teaching. The original intent was to allow secular schools. Thus in 1880 and 1882, Benedictine teaching monks were effectively exiled; this was not completed until 1901.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.st-benoit-du-lac.com/histoire1/history1.html|title=History I|publisher=st-benoit-du-lac.com|access-date=|archive-date = 30 March 2009|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090330145729/http://www.st-benoit-du-lac.com/histoire1/history1.html}}</ref><ref name="Chadwick1998">{{cite book |last= Chadwick|first=Owen |title=A History of the Popes, 1830–1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk1KzHS1IagC&pg=PA495|year=1998|publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn= 978-0-19-826922-9|pages=495–}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ryde.shalfleet.net/wootton_and_quarr.htm Wootton and Fishbourne]. Ryde.shalfleet.net (4 August 2013). Retrieved on 7 September 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.citeaux.net/assisi2005/delivrance-eng.htm RGM 2005 OCSO]. Citeaux.net (28 February 1947). Retrieved on 7 September 2013.</ref>

In 1898 Marie-Adèle Garnier, in religion, Mother Marie de Saint-Pierre, founded in [[Montmartre]] (''Mount of the Martyr''), [[Paris]] a Benedictine house.<ref>[http://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/foundress/foundress.html Tyburn Foundress] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205020044/http://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/foundress/foundress.html |date=5 February 2012 }} at Tyburn Convent official website. Retrieved 23 February 2012</ref> However, the [[René Waldeck-Rousseau|Waldeck-Rousseau]]'s ''Law of Associations'', passed in 1901, placed severe restrictions on religious bodies which were obliged to leave France. Garnier and her community relocated to another place associated with executions, this time it was in [[London]], near the site of [[Tyburn#Tyburn gallows|Tyburn tree]] where 105 Catholic martyrs—including [[Oliver Plunkett|Saint Oliver Plunkett]] and [[Edmund Campion|Saint Edmund Campion]] had been executed during the [[English Reformation]]. A stone's throw from [[Marble Arch]], the [[Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre|Tyburn Convent]] is now the Mother House of the Congregation.<ref>[http://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/martyrs/martyrs_main.html Tyburn Martyrs] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121100511/http://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/martyrs/martyrs_main.html |date=21 January 2012 }} at Tyburn Convent official website. Retrieved 23 February 2012</ref>

===Poland & Lithuania===
[[File:Bellotto New Town Market Square.jpg|thumb|Benedictine church in [[Warsaw]]'s New Town, depicted by [[Bernardo Bellotto|Bellotto]]]]

Benedictines are thought to have arrived in the [[Kingdom of Poland (1025-1031)|Kingdom of Poland]] in the 11th-century. One of the earliest foundations is [[Tyniec|Tyniec Abbey]] on a promontory by the [[Vistula]] river. The Tyniec monks led the translation of the Bible into Polish vernacular. Other surviving Benedictine houses can be found in [[Stary Kraków|Stary Kraków Village]], [[Biskupów]], [[Lubiń, Kościan County|Lubiń]]. Older foundations are in  [[Benedictine Monastery, Mogilno|Mogilno]], [[Trzemeszno]], [[Łęczyca]], [[Łysa Góra]] and in [[Opactwo]], among others. In the [[Middle Ages]] the city of [[Płock]], also on the Vistula, had a successful monastery, which played a significant role in the local economy. In the 18th-century benedictine convents were opened for women, notably in Warsaw's New Town.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

A 15th-century Benedictine foundation can be found in [[Senieji Trakai]], a village in Eastern [[Lithuania]].

===Switzerland===
[[Rheinau Abbey|Kloster Rheinau]] was a Benedictine monastery in Rheinau in the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland, founded in about 778.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YwU4AAAAIAAJ&dq=Rheinau+Abbey&pg=PA285 Clark, James Midgley. ''The Abbey of St. Gall as a Centre of Literature & Art'', Chapter XII, CUP Archive, 1926, 1926]</ref> The abbey of [[Engelberg Abbey|Our Lady of the Angels]] was founded in 1120.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Christen |first=Beat |title=Auf den Tag genau vor 900 Jahren wurde das Kloster Engelberg gegründet |url=https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/zentralschweiz/obwalden/auf-den-tag-genau-vor-900-jahren-wurde-das-kloster-gegrundet-ld.1209199 |access-date=2022-10-18 |website=[[Luzerner Zeitung]] |date=April 2020 |language=de}}</ref>

===United Kingdom===
The [[English Benedictine Congregation]] is the oldest of the nineteen Benedictine congregations. Through the influence of [[Wilfrid]], [[Benedict Biscop]], and [[Dunstan]],<ref>Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press, US. p. 514</ref> the Benedictine Rule spread rapidly, and in the North it was adopted in most of the monasteries that had been founded by the Celtic missionaries from Iona. Many of the episcopal sees of England were founded and governed by the Benedictines, and no fewer than nine of the old cathedrals were served by the black monks of the priories attached to them.<ref name="Catholic"/> Monasteries served as hospitals and places of refuge for the weak and homeless. The monks studied the healing properties of plants and minerals to alleviate the sufferings of the sick.<ref name="Hicks">{{cite web|url=http://www.osb.org/gen/hicks/index.html|author=Dom Bruno Hicks|title=The Benedictines|date=2009|access-date=15 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171105194639/http://www.osb.org/gen/hicks/index.html|archive-date=5 November 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

During the [[English Reformation]], all [[Dissolution of the monasteries|monasteries were dissolved]] and their lands confiscated by the Crown, forcing those who wished to continue in the monastic life to flee into exile on the Continent. During the 19th century English members of these communities were able to return to England.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

[[File:Saint Benedict Medal.jpg|thumb|The two sides of a Saint Benedict medal]]

[[Minster in Thanet Priory|St. Mildred's Priory]], on the [[Isle of Thanet]], [[Kent]], was built in 1027 on the site of an abbey founded in 670 by the daughter of the first Christian [[King of Kent]]. Currently the priory is home to a community of Benedictine nuns. Five of the most notable English abbeys are the Basilica of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as [[Downside Abbey]], The Abbey of St Edmund, King and Martyr commonly known as [[Douai Abbey]] in Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berkshire, [[Ealing Abbey]] in Ealing, West London, and [[Worth Abbey]].<ref name="Battell">{{cite magazine|last=Colin Battell |first= OSB|title=Spirituality on the beach|magazine=The Tablet|date= 2 December 2006|pages= 18–19}} The late Cardinal [[Basil Hume]] was Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey before being appointed Archbishop of Westminster.</ref><ref name="Martin">{{cite book|first=Christopher |last=Martin |title=A Glimpse of Heaven: Catholic Churches in England and Wales|location=London|publisher= English Heritage|date= 2007}} Examines the abbeys rebuilt after 1850 (by benefactors among the Catholic aristocracy and recusant squirearchy), mainly Benedictine but including a Cistercian Abbey at Mount St. Bernard (by Pugin) and a Carthusian Charterhouse in Sussex. There is a review of book by Richard Lethbridge "Monuments to Catholic confidence," ''The Tablet'' 10 February 2007, 27.</ref> [[Prinknash Abbey]], used by Henry VIII as a hunting lodge, was officially returned to the Benedictines four hundred years later, in 1928. During the next few years, so-called Prinknash Park was used as a home until it was returned to the order.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Mian Ridge |title=Prinknash monks downsize|magazine=The Tablet|date= 12 November 2005|page= 34}}</ref>

[[Ampleforth Abbey|St. Lawrence's Abbey]] in Ampleforth, Yorkshire was founded in 1802. In 1955, Ampleforth set up a daughter house, a priory at St. Louis, Missouri which became independent in 1973 and became [[Saint Louis Abbey]] in its own right in 1989.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stlouisabbey.org/history|title=History|website=Saint Louis Abbey}}</ref>
[[File:Stanbrook Abbey Church, Wass, Yorkshire - Feilden Clegg and Bradley Studios (30431812950).jpg|thumb|Interior of [[Stanbrook Abbey]] Church, Wass, Yorkshire]]
As of 2015, the English Congregation consists of three abbeys of nuns and ten abbeys of monks. Members of the congregation are found in England, Wales, the United States of America, Peru and Zimbabwe.<ref name="English">{{cite web|url=http://www.benedictines.org.uk/our-tradition/history/|title=History – The English Benedictine Congregation|work=benedictines.org.uk|access-date=11 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211095014/http://www.benedictines.org.uk/our-tradition/history/|archive-date=11 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In England there are also houses of the [[Subiaco Cassinese Congregation#English Province|Subiaco Cassinese Congregation]]: Farnborough, Prinknash, and Chilworth: the [[Solesmes Congregation]], Quarr and St Cecilia's on the Isle of Wight, as well as a diocesan monastery following the Rule of Saint Benedict: The Community of Our Lady of Glastonbury.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.glastonburymonastery.co.uk/|title=HOME &#124; Glastonbury Monastery &#124; Somerset|website=Mysite}}</ref>

Since the [[Oxford Movement]], there has also been a modest flourishing of Benedictine monasticism in the [[Anglican Communion|Anglican Church]] and Protestant Churches. Anglican Benedictine Abbots are invited<!---invited, right? Not just "drop by." :)---> guests of the Benedictine Abbot Primate in Rome at Abbatial gatherings at Sant'Anselmo.<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Rees |chapter=Anglican Monasticism |title=Encyclopedia of Monasticism |editor-first=William |editor-last=Johnston |location=New York |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publisher |year=2000 |page=29 |isbn=1-57958-090-4 }}</ref>

In 1168 local Benedictine monks instigated the anti-semitic [[blood libel]] of [[Harold of Gloucester]] as a template for explaining child deaths. According to historian Joe Hillaby, the blood libel of Harold was crucially important because for the first time an unexplained child death occurring near the Easter festival was arbitrarily linked to Jews in the vicinity by local Christian churchmen: "they established a pattern quickly taken up elsewhere. Within three years the first ritual murder charge was made in France."<ref name="hil">{{cite journal |last1=Hillaby |first1=Joe |title=The ritual-child-murder accusation: its dissemination and Harold of Gloucester |journal=Jewish Historical Studies |date=1994–1996 |volume=34 |pages=69–109 |jstor=29779954 }}</ref>

====Monastic libraries in England====
The forty-eighth Rule of Saint Benedict prescribes extensive and habitual "holy reading" for the brethren.<ref>{{cite book |last= Kaur |first= Nirmal|date= 2005|title= History of Education |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=EaGGhbpebLYC&pg=PA44|publisher= Mittal Publications|page= 44|isbn= 81-7099-984-7}}</ref> Three primary types of reading were done by the monks in medieval times. Monks would read privately during their personal time, as well as publicly during services and at mealtimes. In addition to these three mentioned in the Rule, monks would also read in the infirmary. Monasteries were thriving centers of education, with monks and nuns actively encouraged to learn and pray according to the [[Benedictine Rule]]. Rule 38 states that 'these brothers' meals should usually be accompanied by reading, and that they were to eat and drink in silence while one read out loud.

Benedictine monks were not allowed worldly possessions, thus necessitating the preservation and collection of sacred texts in monastic libraries for communal use.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Wormald |last2=Wright|first1= Francis |first2=C.E.|date= 1958|title= The English Library before 1700|via= University of London|publisher= The Athlone Press|location=London|page= 15}}</ref> For the sake of convenience, the books in the monastery were housed in a few different places, namely the [[sacristy]], which contained books for the choir and other liturgical books, the [[Clergy house|rectory]], which housed books for public reading such as sermons and lives of the saints, and the [[library]], which contained the largest collection of books and was typically in the cloister.

The first record of a monastic library in England is in [[Canterbury]]. To assist with [[Augustine of Canterbury]]'s [[Gregorian mission|English mission]], Pope [[Pope Gregory I|Gregory the Great]] gave him nine books which included the Gregorian Bible in two volumes, the Psalter of Augustine, two copies of the [[Gospels]], two [[martyrologies]], an Exposition of the Gospels and Epistles, and a [[Psalter]].<ref name="Savage1912">{{cite book |last= Savage|first= Ernest|date= 1912|title= Old English Libraries|url= https://archive.org/details/cu31924029526112|location= London|publisher= Methuen & Co. Ltd.}}</ref>{{rp|23–25}} [[Theodore of Tarsus]] brought Greek books to Canterbury more than seventy years later, when he founded a school for the study of Greek.<ref name="Savage1912" />{{rp|26}}

=== United States ===

The first Benedictine to live in the United States was Pierre-Joseph Didier. He came to the United States in 1790 from [[Paris]] and served in the Ohio and St. Louis areas until his death. The first actual Benedictine monastery founded was [[Saint Vincent Archabbey]], located in [[Latrobe, Pennsylvania]]. It was founded in 1832 by [[Boniface Wimmer]], a German monk, who sought to serve German immigrants in America. In 1856, Wimmer started to lay the foundations for [[Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville|St. John's Abbey]] in Minnesota. In 1876, Herman Wolfe, of Saint Vincent Archabbey established [[Belmont Abbey, North Carolina|Belmont Abbey]] in North Carolina.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://belmontabbey.org/learn-about-the-monastery/history-of-belmont-abbey/ |title='History of Belmont Abbey', Belmont Abbey, North Carolina |access-date=4 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416152335/http://belmontabbey.org/learn-about-the-monastery/history-of-belmont-abbey/ |archive-date=16 April 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By the time of his death in 1887, Wimmer had sent Benedictine monks to Kansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Illinois, and Colorado.<ref name="RB 1980">{{Cite book|title = RB 1980: the rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with notes|author=St Benedict|author-link=St Benedict|translator-last = Fry|translator-first = Timothy|publisher = The Liturgical Press|year = 1981|isbn = 0-8146-1211-3|location = Collegeville, MN|pages = 136–141|ol=4255653M}}</ref>

Wimmer also asked for Benedictine [[Nun#Distinction between a nun and a religious sister|sister]]s to be sent to America by St. Walburg Convent in [[Eichstätt]], Bavaria. In 1852, [[Sister Benedicta Riepp]] and two other sisters founded [[St. Marys, Pennsylvania]]. Soon they would send sisters to Michigan, New Jersey, and Minnesota.<ref name="RB 1980" />

By 1854, Swiss monks began to arrive and founded [[St. Meinrad Archabbey|St. Meinrad Abbey]] in Indiana, and they soon spread to Arkansas and Louisiana. They were soon followed by Swiss sisters.<ref name="RB 1980" />

There are now over 100 Benedictine houses across America. Most Benedictine houses are part of one of four large Congregations: American-Cassinese, Swiss-American, St. Scholastica, and St. Benedict. The congregations mostly are made up of monasteries that share the same lineage. For instance the American-Cassinese congregation included the 22 monasteries descended from Boniface Wimmer.<ref>{{Cite web|title = The Benedictine Congregations and Federations of North America in the Benedictine Confederation.|url = http://www.osb.org/intl/confed/nacong.html|website = www.osb.org|access-date = 24 November 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170903031504/http://www.osb.org/intl/confed/nacong.html|archive-date = 3 September 2017|url-status = dead|df = dmy-all}}</ref>