Blessed Mary and the Monks of England

In the study of historical Mariology, the monastic communities of England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries—the period so dramatically interrupted and reshaped by the Norman conquest of 1066—receive too little attention. This "monastic age" was a time of great flourishing for both religious life and Mariology, marked by new currents of prayer and thought.

In this volume, Matthew Mills uncovers and draws together vibrant contributions to Marian doctrine and devotion by some of those then living in England under the sixth-century Rule of St. Benedict: the Benedictines and their successors, the Cistercians. In a thematic unfolding of Mary’s life and identity, from conception to assumption and intercession, a picture emerges of a Mariology shaped by the constant of monastic liturgy, anchored in the biblical and patristic wisdom cherished and transmitted by the Venerable Bede, and animated by love. Towering figures, such as Anselm of Canterbury and Ælred of Rievaulx, are also placed within a wider landscape alongside lesser known but still significant others, including the Cistercian abbot, John of Forde, royal confessor and pioneer of Marian exegesis of the Song of Songs.

England’s monastic Mariology was colored by Greek as well as Latin influences and touched by key experiences of the contemporary church at large: apocalyptic disappointment, reform, sacramentalism, and intense yearning for salvation. In particular, Mills brings to light the significance of Mary for monks’ understanding of their own profession: their mother and their lady, Mary was also their icon and exemplar of life in St Benedict’s "school for the Lord’s service" ( Rule, Prol. 45).