The community in brief
From the first centuries of Christianity, there have been men and women, who soon were called monastics, who left everything in order to try to live the Gospel radically in celibacy and united in communities.
From the first centuries of Christianity, there have been men and women, who soon were called monastics, who left everything in order to try to live the Gospel radically in celibacy and united in communities.
Bose belongs to this tradition, common to both the Christian East and the Christian West, and seeks to live today the monastic project.
Bose is a community of monks and nuns who belong to various Christian Churches,
who seek God in obedience to the Gospel, in fraternal communion, in celibacy
in solidarity with all other men and women, their brothers and sisters.
The monastic community of Bose, which arose in 1968 with the paternal blessing of Cardinal Michele Pellegrino, Archbishop of Turin, by the initiative of br Enzo Bianchi together with several brothers and sisters, from the very beginning has been an ecumenical community through the presence of members belonging to various Christian Churches already among those who made their vows in 1973.
Today the monastic community of Bose is a monastery sui iuris of diocesan right, under the paternal vigilance of the Bishop of Biella, who erected it by approving its Constitutions on 29 July 2023.
The community is composed of men and women. The Gospels attest that among the disciples of Jesus there were the twelve and some women (cf. Lk 8,2). The common life between brothers and sisters, who did not choose each other and who live in celibacy in response to Christ’s call, is a school of respecting the other. Common life in celibacy of men and women is to be lived in an eschatological perspective, which belongs to the very nature of monasticism. There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3,28).
The brothers and sisters of the monastic community of Bose, in seeking God by following Jesus Christ, try to live the radicalism of the Gospel in celibacy and common life, in obedience, poverty, and stability according to the Rule of Bose and inspired by the great monastic tradition of East and West. In this form of life, founded in Baptism and constantly nourished by the Eucharist, the brothers and sisters treasure the aspirations of the ecumenical movement and the teachings of Vatican Council II.
What is the life of the brothers and sisters of Bose like? It is a simple life, tending towards the essential: a cenobitic life made up of work and prayer. In fact, there is no specific work that is the community’s own, if not that of believing and living in Him whom God has sent: Jesus Christ.
Community prayer, in the three daily offices, continues in personal prayer in the life of every brother and every sister, especially in lectio divina. This last is also offered every day to our guests by a member of the community. Saturday evening, in preparation for the Sunday Eucharist, the community and guests come together for the community vigil, in the course of which they listen together to the Biblical texts of that Sunday, and the prior, or a brother or sister appointed by him, help in capturing the spiritual unity of the scriptural texts proposed by the lectionary.
All the members of the community work, gaining their livelihood by the work of their hands, according to the example of the apostles and the fathers. The gardens, orchards, olive groves and vineyards, workshops of icons and candles, carpentry, a publishing house, as well as Biblical and patristic studies, studies of the Hebrew and Christian tradition are some of the activities pursued so far, as a service to the community, to our guests, and to the Churches.
Hospitality is a ministry practiced since the beginnings of monasticism. At Bose and in its fraternities the brothers and sisters seek to welcome all, discerning in every person the presence of Christ, who said: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Mt 25,35). Particular attention is given to those who need a place apart, to stay in silence, to share our prayer and our life, or to share views on the problems of the world or of the Church.