To my knowledge, there does not exist a nice list anywhere, in English or otherwise, of the archabbeys in the world. Try searching google or wikipedia for archabbeys or the like and you won't find a nice list. I did however, come to find that there are indeed 11 in the world. St. Meinrad's website has a citation, claiming "There are only 11 archabbeys in the world, one other in the United States." This is repeated on the wikipedia entry on Indiana. This seemed to me to confirm that I had 11 to find.
I knew of a few, and decided the best way to get to this was to search for a parital list, to see if I could find a full list. I searched google for "pannonhalma beuron ottilien meinrad vincent", which were 5 I was able to find via looking through wikipedia. The only useful entry I found was a web forum in Italian. In case, at some point that link fails to work, I will post here the pertinent entry:
So, I had a list. I knew some of these, but not all. I also was pointed to the Benedictine's central site, which has a nice search feature (called atlas). This however was not the end of my quest.Ringraziando Henry O'Shea e il sito www.osb-international.info, cui ho chiesto informazioni, posso fornirvi l'elenco completo delle 11 arciabbazie al mondo (ho completato aggiungendo ad ognuna il link al sito ufficiale):Citazione:
1) Sì. In tutto le arciabbazie sono 11 (secondo il sito dell'abbazia di san Meinrado): di queste conosco Montecassino, Pannonhalma (UNG), Beuron (GER), Emming(GER), San Meinrado (USA), San Vincenzo (USA), San Pietro a Salisburgo (AUT).
Se qualcuno mi sa dire quali manchino, ben venga.
1) Montecassino;
2) Monte Oliveto Maggiore;
3) Vallombrosa;
4) Arpino (monache)(non hanno sito web);
5) Beuron (DEU);
6) Sankt Ottilien (DEU);
7) Brevnov (CZE);
8) Pannonhalma (HUN);
9) Saint Vincent (USA);
10) Saint Meinrad (USA);
11) Sao Sebastiao em Salvador (BRA)(non hanno sito web).
I decided that I must confirm that indeed each of these are Archabbeys, as I had my doubts (for instance about Montecassino). A confirmation, I decided, was some mention, on the internet, especially in something official (like their website) that it is an archabbey.
I will cut to the chase a little bit. I did not confirm this list completely, I was able to confirm 10 of the 11, and found another one, which makes 11. I will present them all below, with sources and such.
First, Montecassino in Italy. This one threw me for a loop, because none of the official websites refer to it as anything but the Abbey of Montecassino. A little bit of poking around, and I found a Vatican itinerary on the Holy See's website stating "Celebration of Vespers with the Benedictine Abbots and the Community of Benedictine Monks and Nuns gathered in the Archabbey of Montecassino." I call that confirmed.
Next, Monte Oliveto Maggiore, also in Italy, was another tough one. Their website, and that of the Benedictines didn't refer to it as an archabbey. But, I did find a letter of Pope John Paul II to the Olivetian Benedictines, which says: "...so united to the Archabbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore that they form a single family by a juridical bond..." If it's good enough for the Pope, then it is good enough for me.
I was unable to confirm #3 on the list, Vallombrosa, but I did confirm #4 Arpino. This was the hardest of all, because searching for Arpino in the website of the Benedictines didn't yield a result. In a sense, the confirmation was easy, searching Google for "Arpino archabbey" yielded the 2006 charitable giving of the Knights of Columbus: "Benedictine Archabbey of Arpino, Romania — New monastery". By having the Benedictine website list all the territorial abbeys, one can find the listing for Arpino. That gives you at least a little bit about it, and thanks to the crack record keeping of the Knights, we know it to be an archabbey of nuns.
Beuron archabbey in Germany is one of the few archabbeys with the word "archabbey" in the wikipedia page. Likewise, their website lists them as an archabbey (erzabtei in German).
Saint Ottilien, also in Germany, is also listed as an "Erzabtei" on the OSB website.
Brevnov, located in the Czech Republic, is listed as a "Benediktinske arciopatstvi" which would seem to be Czech for Benedictine archabbey. A quick glance at their website's German version also confirms that it is an erzabtei, or archabbey.
I add in, now, St. Peter's in Salzburg, Austria, another confirmed case of "Erzabtei" thanks to the OSB website.
Pannonhalma, Hungary, is one of the oldest abbeys in the world. Hungarian is a much different beast of a language, but luckily, they have an English version of their homepage, with a note signed "Archabbot Asztrik Várszegi".
St. Vincent in Latrobe and St. Meinrad in Indiana, both proudly call themselves archabbeys.
Which leaves us with the last of our list, being called "Sao Sebastiao em Salvado" in Brazil by the list we had. Though I know no Portuguese, I can gather that this is St. Sebastian in Salvador (Bahia) Brazil. The wikipedia entry for the archdiocese mentions "Basílica Arquiabacial de São Sebastião (first benedictine monastery in the New World)" as a notable Church. Google translate luckily tells me that "arqui abacial" would translate "arch abbey". Additionally, their entry in the OSB atlas gives an email address for the abbey as "arquiabadeemanuel@hotmail.com", and again, google translate tells me that this would be archabbot Emanuel. Looking at their website, they would seem to best be called the Monestary of St. Benedict at the Archabbey of St. Sebastion. Their site further seems to indicate that they were raised to the status of archabbey in 1982.
That is 11. Assuming there are indeed only 11 archabbeys in the world, this is therefore a complete list. I repeat now, the list:
1) Montecassino; Italy
2) Monte Oliveto Maggiore; Italy
3) Arpino (nuns); Italy
4) Beuron; Germany
5) St. Ottilien; Germany
6) Brevnov; Czech Republic
7) St. Peter; Austria
8) Pannonhalma; Hungary
9) Saint Vincent; USA
10) Saint Meinrad; USA
11) St. Sebastion; Brazil
[EDIT: The list of Territorial Abbeys is incomplete, and as such I have removed it. If you are interested the Wikipedia entry on territorial abbeys might be a useful starting point. I will note that though I can't exactly confirm the list, because I don't know if I can put an actual limit on the number of Archabbeys, it seems reasonable. (Actually Catholic Hierarchy and OSB international disagree on the list of territorial abbeys, that is, the OSB site doesn't list Einsiedeln, Subiaco, or Tokwon.) I might buy the Catholic Heirarchy list of male territorial abbeys, but the Wikipedia list leaves out Arpino and Isola San Giulio, which are abbeys of Nuns, so though independent of a local ordinary, they they might not have territorial control over parishes, for instance.]
There you have it, a (possibly) complete list, in English, of all the archabbeys in the world.
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