Blessed Mary and the Monks of England: Benedictines and Cistercians, 1000-1215
New book on its way!
In the study of historical Mariology, the monastic communities of England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries—the period so dramatically interrupted and reshaped by the Norman conquest of 1066—receive too little attention. This ‘monastic age’ was a time of great flourishing for both religious life and Mariology, marked by new currents of prayer and thought.
In this volume, I uncover and draw together vibrant contributions to Marian doctrine and devotion by some of those then living in England under the sixth-century Rule of St. Benedict: the Benedictines and their successors, the Cistercians. In a thematic unfolding of Mary’s life and identity, from conception to assumption and intercession, a picture emerges of a Mariology shaped by the constant of monastic liturgy, anchored in the biblical and patristic wisdom cherished and transmitted by the Venerable Bede, and animated by love. Towering figures, such as Anselm of Canterbury and Ælred of Rievaulx, are also placed within a wider landscape alongside lesser known but still significant others, including the Cistercian abbot, John of Forde, royal confessor and pioneer of Marian exegesis of the Song of Songs.
England’s monastic Mariology was colored by Greek as well as Latin influences and touched by key experiences of the contemporary church at large: apocalyptic disappointment, reform, sacramentalism, and intense yearning for salvation. In particular, Mills brings to light the significance of Mary for monks’ understanding of their own profession: their mother and their lady, Mary was also their icon and exemplar of life in St Benedict’s ‘school for the Lord’s service’ (Rule, Prol. 45).
This book provides a brilliant demonstration of scholarship and insight in medieval culture. Matthew Mills succeeds in integrating the research and results of the past half century into the world of Benedictine and Cistercian monasticism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. He may feel he is a dwarf on the shoulders of giants like Richard Southern and Benedicta Ward, but he has learned from his masters and now equals them in his understanding of how Mary was perceived, understood and interpreted by several generations of monks. His study illuminates what he calls ‘a rich intellectual culture and spirituality’ in the medieval English church.
Brian Patrick McGuire, Roskilde University