On the Ruin of Britain

This little known sixth century classic is one which deserves much greater readership, particularly in today's apostate West. There are print copies available, but alas, they do not include the full work named above. It can be downloaded free of charge, thanks to Project Gutenberg, at http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Gildas .

"For what can there either be, or be committed, more disgraceful or more unrighteous in human affairs, than to refuse to show fear to God or affection to one's own countrymen, and (without detriment to one's faith) to refuse due honor to those of higher dignity, to cast off all regard to reason, human and divine, and, in contempt of heaven and earth, to be guided by one's own sensual inventions?"

So wrote St. Gildas in his De Excidio Britanniae, as the book is known in Latin.

I will not quote at length from this work, because it merits reading on its own and is short enough and so readily obtainable that to do more than recommend the book to you is to do both you and the book a disservice. Suffice it to say that this long-neglected classic is another that will have a place of honor on the shelves of Leibowitz Abbey. As readers of this and the website From the Catacombs (soon to be renamed as To the Catacombs) know, St. Gildas is the avatar used by the author of these web sites, which should convey the esteem in which he is held.

Ora et Labora: The Rule of Saint Benedict

The three word motto is that of the Benedictines, a monastic order founded in the Sixth Century; the Latin translates as "Pray and Work." And The Rule of St. Benedict is without question one of the foundational documents of post-Greco-Roman Western Civilization, of Christendom. No home, whether Christian or not, should be without a copy of this work, which so greatly influenced the development of the civilization which we now see disintegrating around us.

The first word of St. Benedict's rule is "Listen."

Sound (forgive the pun!) advice. But then all of St. Benedict's advice is sound.

The monastery was an oasis of sanity in a desert of societal desperation, ignorance and chaos. Were it not for the monasteries, Western civilization might never have been restored to grow into the glory of the world; nowhere else was the knowledge of the past preserved, nowhere else was there intellectual pursuit. St. Benedict's sound advice was meant to restore order to the person, then to the community, and by doing so, would by extension bring order to the world.

St. Benedict viewed the monastery as a school for spirituality, a school in which simplicity and routine, labor and obediance, and most of all prayer, aid in helping the person obtain self-mastery and self-control, humility and tranquility in a community setting, and so grow closer to God.

The Benedictine Order, abbreviated as OSB, has undertgone various reforms during its long history. The Cistercians, for example, place a considerable emphasis on manual labor and adhere to a nearly literal interpretation of The Rule of St. Benedict. They were the principal agents of technological development in Medieaval Europe, though agriculture has always been their principle activity; self-sufficiency is the result.

Regular random perusal of this work will prove beneficial to anyone who undertakes it. One begins to see how far we have strayed from sound spiritual ideas. The present day Benedictines, greatly influenced by the subjective and modernist Novus Ordo "Catholic" Church, have gone far astray from the principles of their founder, but monasteries still exist that maintain the purity of the Rule and of the intention of the author of this marvelous little book, read by countless seekers over the course of the centuries.

The Rule of Saint Benedict has a place of honor on the shelves of the library at Leibowitz Abbey.

Works and Days

The first "Farmers' Almanac" in the West is a classic that every library must have: Works and Days, by Hesiod.

Hesiod's Eighth-century B.C. Greek oral poem, second only to Homer's Iliad in longevity, treats of farming techniques, astronomy, seasonal observation, time-keeping techniqes and Greek mythology, among other things.

These days, few other than farmers, mariners, science pros and hobbyists pay much attention to astronomy; in fact, most are oblivious of such simple detail as the phase of the moon on any given day, so out of touch with the natural world they have become. What does the phase of the moon have to do with the evening television schedule? Who cares?

Those who plant things care. Those who harvest things care. Those who deal with animals care. Folk wisdom has it that the moon affects these activities, and observation tends to confirm folk wisdom. As those who live in rural area are fond of pointing out: "You don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing."

Hesiod's is a voice of sanity and wisdom: "Neither famine nor disaster ever haunt men who do true justice; but light-heartedly they tend the fields which are all their care. The earth bears them victual in plenty, and on the mountains the oak bears acorns upon the top and bees in the midst. Their woolly sheep are laden with fleeces; their women bear children like their parents.They flourish continually with good things, and do not travel on ships, for the grain-giving earth bears them fruit."

And here is some simple, sensible advise for any age: "Do not get base gain: base gain is as bad as ruin. Be friends with the friendly, and visit him who visits you. Give to one who gives, but do not give to one who does not give. A man gives to the free-handed, but no one gives to the close-fisted. Give is a good girl,but Take is bad and she brings death. For the man who gives willingly,even though he gives a great thing, rejoices in his gift and is glad in heart; but whoever gives way to shamelessness and takes something himself, even though it be a small thing, it freezes his heart."

Some practical advice for the Greeks of Hesiod's time and place: "When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas are rising, begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set. Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the year moves round, when first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains, and of those who live near the sea, and who inhabit rich country, the glens and dingles far from the tossing sea,--strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get in all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow in its season."

"Strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap" does not mean that you must hire Boom-Boom AlFresco, everyone's favorite outdoor exotic dancer. It means, hopefully obviously, that all these tasks are to be done while hot weather prevails.

How many young people--people, period--know what and who the Pleiades were? They are also known as the "Seven Sisters," and are to be found, along with their parents (Pleione is their mom), in the constellation of Taurus, lovingly pursued by Orion the Hunter. Hesiod does not name them, but they are: Alcyone, Asrerope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygete, although only six appear to the naked eye. Greek sailors of Hesiod's time would not weigh anchor and go to sea unless they were visible, given that storms were likely were the sisters in hiding.

Leibowitz Abbey is written about from the Southern Hemisphere, where the night sky is inhabited by different constellations, the best known of which is the Southern Cross, which will soon be on meridan, on May 10th, to be precise, meaning that winter will soon lay sparkling clouds of frost at dawn on the dying grass. The Cross is set against the starry cloud of the Milky Way, known to medieval pilgrims as the road of souls headed west, and it was followed by those on the Way of St. James.

Read Hesiod and make a point of paying greater attention to the sky, the seasons, the natural phenomena which surround you. You will not regret it, and the day may come that such observations will be of practical use for you, particularly if you contemplating or executing paradigm change.If the spirit moves you, please contact Leibowitz Abbey if you'd like to donate a copy of Works and Days, and should you choose to buy it, please do so through the link provided. Any purchase made on Amazon if you go there through that link will aid the Abbey on its mission.

Welcome to the Abbey

Leibowitz Abbey is a monastery that is located in the minds of all those who have read Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s 1959 classic A Canticle for Leibowitz; if you are not among those who have, I can only suggest that you do so as soon as possible.

This site--the virtual home of Leibowitz Abbey--is intended to complement the more extensive paradigm change site From the Catacombs, intended for a more diverse readership. The monastery pictured to the right is the Seminario Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, more about which below.

It is my belief that the Western world is soon to undergo paradigm change; what form it will take, no one can truly say. It is also my belief that thanks to our God-given free will, we can elect the form we hope it will take for us.

The "Albertian Order of Leibowitz" in the novel had as its mission the protection and preservation of the written remnants of the "Magna Civitas," the civilization which perished in the the fictional "Flame Deluge," the nuclear holocaust much feared in the late 1950s.

This writer sees a dumbing-down of the population akin to a holocaust and is determined to create a library of what he believes will be documents of great value to those who, social engineering notwithstanding, will want to learn from the learning of generations past. Those who believe in this mission will be asked to donate books and/or funds so that this library can be built and stocked in a location "far from the madding crowds" who might one day wish to destroy it. Yes: destroy, hard as that may be to believe at this moment.

Slowly but surely, a catalog of volumes to be included will appear on this site. Information about short courses, language courses, skilled trade courses and other learning experiences available through "Leibowitz Abbey" will be posted as plans are firmed up into projects. These undertakings will be carried out with the active participation of religious from the Traditional Catholic Seminario Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a nearly entirely self-sufficient small monastery/seminary located in a spectacular setting near the Argentin-Patagonian village of El Bolsón.

Now... read the book!