Vatican: The Monastery Where Benedict XVI Lived Welcomes Benedictines
A group of Argentinian Benedictines will soon move into the Vatican monastery where Pope Benedict XVI lived after his abdication.
On November 13, the Vatican announced that the Benedictine Order of the Abbey of Saint Scholastica of Victoria, province of Buenos Aires (Argentina), has accepted the invitation of Pope Francis to form a monastic community in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.
The six nuns will move into the monastery, situated in the Vatican gardens in the Vatican City State, in early January, according to the press release.
The Mater Ecclesiae monastery was canonically erected by John Paul II in 1994 for contemplative nuns. Different groups of cloistered nuns, alternating every three years, lived in the monastery until November 2012.
The Vatican stated that after the death of Benedict XVI, Pope Francis decided to return the monastery to its initial purpose as a place where “the contemplative orders support the Holy Father in his daily care for the entire Church, through the ministry of prayer, adoration, praise and reparation, as a prayerful presence in silence and solitude.”
The Governorate of the Vatican City State is in charge of supervising the monastery.
Benedict XVI spent more than nine years in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, assisted by his personal secretary, Archbishop George Gänswein. On May 2, 2013, the Pope Emeritus moved into the monastery, which had then been empty after renovation work, and he remained there until his death on December 31, 2022.
Fuente: CNA – FSSPX.Actualités
Imagen: Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
