How the ten Benedictine hallmarks make the Abbey special By Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B. Often students, alumni or visitors will say, “There’s something special about this place.” What is that special something? In many ways, Belmont Abbey College is similar to hundreds of other colleges and universities. There are students and professors, classrooms and labs, athletic facilities, etc. One thing, however, that Belmont Abbey shares with only twelve other colleges is that it has a Benedictine monastery in the center of the campus. There are twelve colleges or universities in the United States, and one in Canada, which are sponsored by Benedictine monastic communities. The life of these schools and monasteries has always been closely intertwined. For years,
Benedictine colleges and universities, at the instigation of Belmont Abbey College’s Presidentemeritus Robert Preston, then Provost at Illinois Benedictine College, formed the Association
The Hallmarks are: 1) Love of Christ and neighbor; 2) Prayer: a life marked by liturgy, lectio and mindfulness; 3) Stability: commitment to the daily life of this place, its heritage and tradition; 4) Conversatio: the way of formation and transformation; 5) Obedience: a commitment to listening and consequent action; 6) Discipline: a way toward learning and freedom; 7) Humility: knowledge of self in relation to God, others and creation; 8) Stewardship: responsible use of creation, culture and the arts; 9) Hospitality: openness to the other;
“I think the values captured by these Hallmarks are the secret to that ‘something special’ you find at Belmont Abbey College.” the Benedictines and the students lived and worked in close contact, and the life of the school in many ways mirrored the monastery’s life. In this context, the values of Benedictine life were transmitted naturally to the students through their close relations to their monastic teachers and mentors. As higher education has become more complex and the number of Benedictines has declined in the sponsoring monasteries, the transmission of these values, characteristic of Benedictine life, has necessarily become more intentional. In the early1990s, the
of Benedictine Colleges and Universities (ABCU). In recent years, this Association has taken up in earnest the question of the unique identity imparted to these schools by their Benedictine heritage. In a cooperative venture among all the schools, the ABCU has developed a set of values which are considered the Ten Hallmarks of Benedictine Education. While none of these hallmarks is unique to Benedictine tradition, taken together, they ought to provide the context in which education is imparted in a school sponsored by a Benedictine monastic community.
10) Community: call to serve the common good. Each school can use these hallmarks in the way it judges best for its own community. The goal is to have these values permeate the college community so that they become embedded in the very life of the institution. The technical part of education, the learning of facts and methodology, can be done anywhere. Benedictine colleges need to connect these facts and methods with a larger context; namely, that of meaning and purpose. As a part of the larger Catholic continued on page 18
6 Crossroads
The Magazine of Belmont Abbey College
Spring 2008