The Gregorian chanting monks of Santo Domingo de Silos Monastery in Spain have been compelled to leave the solitude of their cells for the first time since 1835. This time, however, it’s not due to a political choice made by the Church’s adversaries, but rather as a safety measure against nearby wildfires.
More than 500 people have been evacuated from the area as a result of the flames that are destroying the countryside around the community of Santo Domingo de Silos and destroying at least eight buildings.
The sisters at the Benedictine monastery of Santa Mara in the nearby town of Aranda de Duero are housing the monks at their guest house, according to a statement the monks gave to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister news agency.
The town’s citizens, who were also compelled to leave their houses, drew the concern of the monks. They also bemoaned the harm the fire had done to the hamlet, the environment, and the cattle and agricultural industries.
Church property confiscation
Since Juan lvarez de Mendizábal, the powerful prime minister under Queen Isabel II, started the process of taking Church property from 1835 to 1837, the monks haven’t had to leave their monastery.
Contrary to the justification for its implementation, the confiscation did not result in a distribution of monastic lands but rather encouraged the ownership of sizable tracts of farmland, typically by a single individual, especially in southern Spain.
It also included the expulsion of any religious order that was not specifically dedicated to charitable works.
Over a millennium of monastic existence
Its original name, the Monastery of San Sebastián de Silos, is first attested in a record from the year 954.
The monastery suffered until St. Domingo Manso, a monk who had served as prior of the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla in the town of La Rioja, arrived in the 11th century because of the military campaigns of Almanzor (c. 939–1002), the de facto ruler of Muslim-occupied Spain.
He oversaw the construction of a cloister and a Romanesque church, parts of which are still visible.
The monastery was named in his honor after his passing in 1073.
The other St. Dominic, who was the creator of the Order of Preachers, was baptized there in the year 1170.
The Baroque church that was built in the 18th century to take the place of the Romanesque church, along with a brand-new cloister, still stands today.
Along with the monks’ departure, the confiscation under Mendizábal resulted in the destruction of a significant religious artistic treasure and its historical records.
A group of Benedictine monks who had been banished from France were permitted to enter the monastery in 1880, some 50 years after the confiscation, and they helped to restore its life of meditation and service.
Since that time, other foundations in Spain have their roots in this monastery, including Holy Cross abbey in the Valley of the Fallen, a massive complex where the dead from the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War are interred.
The monastery suffered fire damage in 1970, although it has since been repaired.