(OSV News) ─ As preparations begin for the 1,500th anniversary of the founding of Italy's Monte Cassino, the mother abbey of Western monasticism established by St. Benedict in 529, the Benedictine Confederation has launched a new website designed to connect pilgrims, visitors and spiritual seekers with monasteries around the world.
The initiative is part of a global "Journey to Jubilee" leading to celebrations in 2029. Organizers say the project is intended to use the anniversary as an opportunity to introduce people to Benedictine spirituality today.
"I think the rule of St. Benedict speaks to our age because it begins with a very simple invitation: 'Listen,'" Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder, head of the worldwide Benedictine Confederation, told OSV News.
"Much of contemporary life is marked by noise, speed and constant distraction. Benedictine life proposes something different: a way of inhabiting the world with greater attentiveness, balance and humanity," he said.
The new website allows users to locate monasteries, explore Benedictine communities and follow preparations for the jubilee. According to Adam Simon, coordinator of the 2029 jubilee project, around 400 men's monasteries are already featured on the platform, with women's monasteries expected to be added in a second phase.
"The jubilee website was created to give the 2029 jubilee a visible and accessible home online," Simon told OSV News. "Above all, it is an invitation for people to discover Benedictine monasteries as living 'places of hope,' rooted in prayer, community, stability and welcome."
The website grew out of a practical question, Simon explained: "How can people across the world encounter the jubilee, find a monastery, follow the 'Journey to Jubilee,' and take part?"
"The doors of monasteries are opening for the jubilee, and the website is the digital gateway to discovering them," he said.
The website also highlights the global reach of Benedictine life today. According to Simon, the Benedictine family includes approximately 6,200 monks and 12,000 religious sisters spread across different congregations and regions around the world.
"Of the male monasteries in the world just under 50% are in Europe," Simon said. "Following the missionary expansion of the last 200 years, the remaining 50% are split across North America, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America."
Those figures, he said, demonstrate how Benedictine monasticism has developed far beyond its European origins.
"These figures clearly show that Benedictine life is not simply a European inheritance, but a genuinely global family, shaped today by cultures and communities on every continent."
Abbot Schröder said he hopes the anniversary will encourage people to rediscover a tradition that continues to speak to contemporary concerns.
"Many people today, whether they are believers or not, are looking for places where they can rediscover silence, meaningful relationships and a sense of purpose," he said. "I believe the Benedictine tradition has something valuable to offer precisely because it reminds us that a good life is built patiently, day by day, in community and in hope."
That search often brings visitors to monasteries for very different reasons. "The reasons are as varied as the people themselves," Abbot Schröder said. "Some come as pilgrims, some as tourists, some carrying grief or important decisions, and some simply because they are curious."
"What they all discover is a space where they are not primarily treated as consumers or clients, but as guests. St. Benedict wrote that all guests should be received as Christ. That is a demanding ideal, but it expresses something profound: every person deserves attention and respect."
The jubilee itself is being organized as a four-year spiritual preparation known as the "Journey to Jubilee." Rather than focusing exclusively on celebrations planned for 2029, organizers hope to encourage reflection and participation throughout the coming years.
"This makes the jubilee not just an event in the future, but a gradual process of remembrance, reflection, conversion and hope," Simon said.
The journey follows key stages in the life of St. Benedict. The first stage, "Awaken," will take place in Nursia ─ where St. Benedict was born ─ in 2026, followed by "Listen" in Rome in 2027. The third stage, "Grow," will focus on Subiaco ─ where the saint founded 12 communities for monks-- in 2028, before the final stage, "Flourish," which will culminate in Monte Cassino in 2029.
Major celebrations are already being planned in Monte Cassino and Rome around three significant dates in 2029: Feb. 10, the feast of St. Scholastica, the foundress of the Benedictine nuns; March 21, commemorating the transitus of St. Benedict, the day he entered eternity; and July 11, his feast day in the Roman calendar.
At the same time, organizers stress that the jubilee is intended to be global.
"Our focus is the initiatives which will come from monasteries and regions themselves," Simon said. "The jubilee is designed to be 'decentralized.' ... The jubilee will flourish with the plans of individual monasteries and congregations, and when the people of God respond with curiosity and interest to participate in the jubilee." The jubilee coordinator noted that initiatives are already emerging in places including Senegal, the United Kingdom, Austria and Australia.
Looking toward 2029, Abbot Schröder said his hope is that the jubilee will help strengthen communities of faith and offer people a deeper sense of belonging.
"For the Church, I hope the jubilee will encourage us to rediscover the importance of communities that pray together, listen to one another and welcome others with generosity," he said. "Benedictine spirituality has always sought to build communion rather than division." He added that many Christians today are looking for stable communities where they can return again and again.
"Nowadays, pastoral provisions are becoming rather patchy in many parts of the world," he said. "We invite Christians to connect their lived faith with a place and a community to which they can return again and again, an oasis in the desert of life, if you like."
For those encountering Benedictine spirituality for the first time, Abbot Schröder said the message of St. Benedict remains remarkably accessible.
"I hope they will discover that holiness is not reserved for extraordinary people or extraordinary moments," he said. "St. Benedict wrote a rule for very average people. He teaches us that God is to be sought in the ordinary rhythms of daily life, in work well done, in shared meals, in care for creation, in prayer and in service to others."
Simon said organizers have received "very positive feedback" and welcomed "lots of visitors" to the website.
For Abbot Schröder, however, the success of the jubilee will ultimately be measured not by website traffic or attendance figures, but by its spiritual impact.
"If the jubilee helps people to visit a monastery and to come away from it with a little more hope, a little more peace and a renewed confidence that a meaningful life can be built with some wisdom and moderation, then it will have borne good fruit."
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Katarzyna Szalajko writes for OSV News from Warsaw, Poland.
