Religious Order dedicated to Musicians
  • daniel
    Posts: 75
    Does anyone know of a religious order for men dedicated strictly to church music? Is anyone interested in starting one?
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,325
    Check out these guys in the Archdiocese of Chicago:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canons_Regular_of_Saint_John_Cantius

    I wouldn't say that they are "dedicated strictly to church music," but they are a very musical, traditional order with a number of professionally trained musicians among their professed members.
  • What a divinely inspired idea!
  • CGM
    Posts: 699
    There are a few orders that come to mind:

    1. The Dominicans of the St. Joseph Province (based out of D.C.) have quite a fine musical thing going on now — see here — as well as a serious vocations boom. I love the Dominicans!

    2. The Fraternités Monastiques de Jérusalem à Montréal. The Fraternités is a remarkable order of men and women whose motto is, "In the heart of the city, in the heart of the church." They have been given numerous prominent churches throughout Europe, including in Paris (Saint Gervais), Mont St. Michel, Rome (San Sebastiano), Cologne (Groß Sankt Martin), Florence, Strasbourg, and elsewhere. They also have a church in North America — Blessed Sacrament in Montreal (Saint-Sacrement).

    Their charism is beautifully sung liturgy, and having spent a few days in retreat with them in Montreal a decade ago, I can attest that it is overwhelming what 15-20 monks and sisters, facing the altar and praying together in song, can achieve — both aesthetically and spiritually.

    While they have a couple visiting Americans and other English-speakers in residence in Montreal, the principal language there is French, and all the liturgies are sung in French. So if you're not a native French-speaker, this may not be the community for you. (I was visiting with a small English-speaking group from NYC.)

    There's been some talk about getting them into the U.S., and much of their music — almost exclusively composed by André Gouzes, O.P. — has been translated into English. However, they're not here yet...

    3. There's also the Community of Jesus, an ecumenical monastic community which runs a church in Cape Cod. The renowned ensemble Gloria Dei Cantores is drawn from members of the community, and has recorded over 50 CD's of sacred music, including ten discs of Gregorian chant and a wide variety of music by everyone from Mozart to Howells, Palestrina to Hovhaness, and nearly everyone in between. The choir does frequent tours through the U.S. and the world.

    The Community of Jesus is not a Catholic religious order, but it is an organization with a very strong devotion to church music.
  • Daniel – As far as I know, there is one and only one monastic / religious order for men that is strictly dedicated to serving Our Lord Jesus, the Christ through traditional sacred music and art as well as supporting and preserving traditional men and boy choirs. It is the Society and Order that I founded several years ago called SARUM MONASTERY as operated by The Sarum Society.

    It is in its infancy, not associated with any denomination and therefore independent and autonomous. However, we observe the Liturgy of the Hours in both Latin and formal English. The Mass is according to the Sarum Rite, we have Evensong instead of Vespers and offer the Rosary three times daily. We are not yet up to doing polyphony simply because we are very few in number. There is no formal building as such as we are in the process of building our financial resources.

    We have hopes of finding the right church building and facilities either for sale or for donation. We have an immense library already. There is no age restrictions and we follow our own Rule.

    Ideally, we would like to see in the future a classical school for boys K – 12th grade with the finest faculty available.
  • an ecumenical monastic community


    How does this manifest itself?
    Thanked by 1GerardH
  • daniel
    Posts: 75
    But is anyone interested in starting one in the Chicago area? There are many vacant rectories and convents.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    In the Chicago area, the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross is noted for its music practice.