In the monastic tradition, hospitality and peacemaking have long been cellmates. Back in the sixth century, St. Benedict specified in his Rule, seminal to Christian monasticism, that “as soon as a guest is announced, let the Superior or the brethren meet him (sic) with all charitable service. And first of all let them pray together, and then exchange the kiss of peace.” Welcome, prayer, peace: the paradigmatic Benedictine progression.

History credits monasteries for carrying classical thought, art and culture through the violent, chaotic years following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Internally ordered and disciplined, these communities of scholars, craftspeople and scribes reproduced ancient texts, preserving them in Europe’s largest libraries. Without these committed centres of learning, an irreparable rupture in the inheritance of knowledge would have left the West intellectually impoverished, perhaps permanently.

Universities eventually replaced abbeys as bastions of scholarship, education and archival activity. Monasteries went on to shrink in number, influence and strength. Irish monks may well have saved civilization in the early Middle Ages, as scholar Thomas Cahill argued in his 1995 book, but no one’s writing books to contend that they’re still doing so.

I offer not yet a book,........

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