Feast Day: November 1

"It is good for us to let ourselves be provoked by the saints, who never had half measures here on earth and who from there above ‘cheer’ us, so that we choose God, humility, meekness, mercy and purity, because we are impassioned about heaven rather than earth… It is not a question of doing extraordinary things, but of following this path every day that takes us to heaven, to our families, to our homes.” (Pope Francis, Angelus of 11/1/18)

Feast Day: November 2

In keeping with this widespread custom of remembering the dead in November, the monks especially remember individual deceased family members, friends, and benefactors in their prayers and in the Masses on All Souls' Day. In addition, during the entire month of November, beginning on All Souls' Day, the Monastery keeps a silver box on the high altar containing the names those faithful departed mentioned to the Monastery for prayer remembrance, and Masses are offered during the month for these souls. If you would like the names of your loved ones added to those remembered in prayer by the monks, please place their names in the silver box on the altar.

The photo to the right is of a cross in a choir stall in the Abbey church. Following a practice of St. Louis Abbey, a cross is left at the place of a recently deceased monk for thirty days. This image was of the cross in the stall of Brother Francis Crowley.

Feast Day: November 4

“My beloved parents gave me the name Karol (Charles), which was also my father's name. … How often I have knelt before his relics in Milan Cathedral; how often I have thought about his life, contemplating in my mind the gigantic figure of this man of God and servant of the Church, Charles Borromeo, Cardinal, Bishop of Milan, and a man of the Council. He is one of the great protagonists of the deep reform of the 16th century church, carried out by the Council of Trent, which will always remain linked with his name. Moreover, he was a servant of souls, who never let himself be intimidated; a servant of the suffering, of the sick, of those condemned to death. My Patron Saint!” (Pope Saint John Paul II, November 4, 1978)

Feast Day: November 5

We join our confreres across the EBC in prayer for relatives and benefactors who have died. Benedict XVI notes: “St Augustine says something which is a great thought and a great comfort here. He interprets the passage from the Psalms (105.4) ‘Seek his face always’ as saying: this applies ‘forever’; to all eternity. God is so great that we never finish our searching. He is always new. With God there is perpetual unending encounter, with new discoveries and new joy” (Last Testament).

Illustration by Jose Soares

Feast Day: November 9

This Basilica, called “mother and head of all churches of the City and the World,” first constructed after the Edict of Milan granted Christians freedom to practice faith, is the cathedral church of Rome and seat of the Roman pontiff. “Honoring the Basilica (expresses) love and veneration for the Roman Church, which, as St. Ignatius of Antioch affirms, ‘presides over the charity’ of the entire Catholic communion.” (Pope Benedict, Nov 9, 2008)

Feast Day: November 11

The story of Martin – fourth century soldier, hermit, monk, and bishop – sharing half of his cloak with a beggar is well known, and is associated with the origins of the words “chaplain” and “chapel,” which are said to derive from the “cappalenu,” the reliquary used to carry his cloak, which by the 8^th century had become a cherished relic. Many French people saw Martin’s intercession at work in the Armistice of 1918.

Feast Day: November 13

The number of Benedictine saints is large: “At the beginning of the fourteenth century the order is estimated to have comprised the enormous number of 37,000 monasteries. It had up to that time given to the Church no less than 24 popes, 200 cardinals, 7,000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops, and over 1,500 canonized saints.” (Catholic Encyclopedia) Seven more centuries have only added to this sanctified group. You can find them listed at archive.osb.org, from Abbo to Zosimus, all gathered under one faith and one Rule.

Feast Day: November 14

We pray particularly for the departed of this monastic community. 

Feast Day: November 16

This Benedictine nun of the thirteenth century is the only female saint to receive the title “Great,” awarded that title by Benedict XIV in the 18^th century. Benedict XVI said of her: “…She was an exceptional woman, endowed with special natural talents and extraordinary gifts of grace, the most profound humility and ardent zeal for her neighbor’s salvation. She was in close communion with God both in contemplation and in her readiness to go to the help of those in need… Gertrude was an extraordinary student, she learned everything that can be learned of the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium, the education of that time; she was fascinated by knowledge and threw herself into profane studies with zeal and tenacity, achieving scholastic successes beyond every expectation… she devoted herself to writing and popularizing the truth of faith with clarity and simplicity, with grace and persuasion, serving the Church faithfully and lovingly so as to be helpful to and appreciated by theologians and devout people.” And she is the patroness of the Manquehue community of women that has served us here at the Abbey over the past few years.