About Us
A Path Towards A better World
Our Mission
BenedictUs Australia Limited is incorporated for the purpose of facilitating and carrying on work focused on development and relief in developing countries in accordance with the charism of the Catholic Religious Congregation known as the Sylvestrine Congregation of the Order of St Benedict.
Our History
The Sylvestrines are a congregation of monks of the Order of St. Benedict who form the Sylvestrine Congregation.
The congregation was founded in 1231 by Saint Sylvester Gozzolini. We are members of the Benedictine Confederation. Our congregation is led by an abbot general, the only abbot it has, who supervises all the houses of the congregation.
Saint Sylvester (1177-1267), was born at Osimo near Ancona, Italy. As a young man he entered a community of Augustinian canons regular, who served the cathedral. About 1227 he left the community to lead an austere, eremitical life. Disciples flocked to him, however, and in 1231 he built a hermitage by the mountain of Montefano in the March of Ancona (now the town of Fabriano) from which the community took its original name.
The community which Sylvester founded followed the Rule of St. Benedict, but as regards poverty in external matters, was far stricter than the general Benedictines of the time. The congregation was approved in 1247 by Pope Innocent IV, and, at Sylvester’s death in 1267, there were eleven Sylvestrine monasteries. At their peak, there were 56 monasteries in the congregation, mostly in Umbria and Tuscany, as well as in the March of Ancona.
Like all religious communities in Europe, the Sylvestrines suffered throughout the 19th century from the upheavals of the French Revolutionary Army and the later unification of Italy. By 1907 there were only nine Sylvestrine communities, the principal one being in Rome, the Monastery of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, which was founded in 1563 to serve as the motherhouse of the congregation. The community there had about 60 choir monks at that time. As of 2010, there are only three monasteries still functioning in Italy.
Since 1855 we have also built a monastery in Sri Lanka, our first foundation outside Europe. We provided many of the clergy for that missionary diocese well into the 20th century. Additionally, we have monasteries in the United States, the first being established in Atchison, Kansas, where two intrepid monks arrived in 1910 and served the spiritual needs of the many workers in the coal industry there. As that industry faded and the local population began to move away, they looked elsewhere to build a permanent home. They were welcomed into the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1928, where they able to built their first monastery in the country in 1938, now called St. Benedict of Oxford Priory. They have a daughter house in Clifton, New Jersey, which serves as a shrine to the Holy Face of Jesus, a devotion long connected to the congregation.
A conventual priory was founded in 1962 in Australia at Arcadia, Sydney by an Italian monk serving in Sri Lanka. There are now also monasteries in India. In the late 20th century, a foundation was also established in the Philippines, and, more recently, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Governance
PAUL DESPOGES Director
MICHAEL KELLY Director
JULIE-ANN MCNAMEE Director
BRUCE SHANKLAND Director
JOHN SHEEHAN Director
PENELOPE STURROCK Director
Help Us Provide Them The Basics!
As a charity, our aim is to help those in need by providing them with the basic necessities of life. With enough hard work, dedication, and support, we can make a significant difference in the lives of those who need it the most.
Education Right
Nutritious Meals
School Material
Healthy Environment
Personality Development
Counselling Sessions
Donate And Change Someone's Life!
Donating to charity can have a life-changing impact on someone in need. It can provide access to necessities like food, water, and medical care, as well as resources for education and economic empowerment.
