Yesterday in the mail I received the new – so far as I can tell – St. Benedict CD from Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Monastery. It’s now their fourth musical offering; the first three were of the Masses of Easter, the Assumption, and Christmas. These were all recorded at Fontgombault Abbey in France, and are being sold by Fontgombault’s foundation in the New World, Clear Creek, to raise funds for the completion of Clear Creek’s beautiful new monastery and church.

The rationale of the fourth album was this:

The pieces chosen for this CD and grouped into a florilegium come from the Masses and Offices sung for the three annual feasts in Saint Benedict’s honor mentioned in the liturgical books: those of March 21, July 11, and December 4. The feast in March is that of the transitus, the death of St. Benedict, marked as such in the oldest martyrologies we know carrying a mention of the cultus of the Holy Patriarch (8th century). . . . The July and December feasts are more difficult to disentwine for they both seem to have the same object: the transfer of his relics.

Indeed, during the winter of 703 an audacious expedition snatched away the bodies of Saint Benedict and his sister Saint Scholastica from the ruins left by the Lombards on the Cassino Mountain. The expedition brought them back to the monastery of Fleury-sur-Loire, from where it had started out. The December feast commemorates this event.

In the course of the summer of 704, these same relics, which had been placed temporarily in an oratory dedicated to St. Peter, were solemnly transferred to the Church of St. Mary built just for this purpose. This was the origin of the July 11th feast. Later, the July and December feasts traded objects. They only feast celebrated in the Universal Church is that of the 11th of July.

What I thought was particularly nice – and perhaps somewhat unique? – about this particular album is that the Latin lyrics of these chants in honor of St. Benedict, but also the Gregorian chant notation. It’s like a mini Liber Usualis! Besides the music and the lyrics, they have also included a translation into English, French, and German. It’s really quite a nice little package.

If you’re inclined to spend any money on music, do think of purchasing these albums for yourself or family and friends. They’re very beautiful and the money goes to the best of causes: the support of a traditional monastery here in these United States. And when we buy the albums with this intention in mind, I suppose that we thereby are numbered, after a fashion, among the Clear Creek’s patrons. Which, in turn, would mean that we’re entitled to at least some small share of their prayers on behalf of their patrons. The prayers of contemplative monks can go a long way!

I should also mention that the final piece on the album is “O felicem virum beatum Ioseph” recorded in honor of the man long known to the world and beloved of conservative Catholics, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. The monks of Fontgombault have dedicated the album to him in joy after he put his pontificate under the patronage of St. Benedict, “At the beginning of my service as Successor of St. Peter, I ask St. Benedict to help us keep Christ firmly at the heart of our lives.”