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Spirituality and material culture in Pannonhalma

Halfway between Budapest and Vienna, leave the motor-way and head south for fifteen minutes to reach this one thousand year old monastery where monks are always eager to find out something new.

The exhibition “Saint Benedict and Benedictine spiritualty” brings together different objects varying in age, origin and genre to depict the Benedictine monastic culture.

The museum of the monastery in Pannonhalma opened in the summer of 2014 in a renewed baroque grange. Besides the permanent exhibition featuring the history of the monastery, a temporary exhibition space was also created here which is housing its second temporary exhibition until 30 September. This exhibition is based on the one from the Benedictine monastery Saint Paul im Lavanttal in Austria, but it complements that with pieces from Pannonhalma and from some other Hungarian collections. The context of the exhibition is the Year of Consecrated Life announced by Pope Francis (November 2014 – February 2016) which celebrates the practical, spiritual and historical dimensions of monastic life.

Since the grange is at the foot of the hill on which the monastery was built, physically this exhibition space is separated form the main building. While up on the hill visitors are many, down here it is much quieter. Clearly the organisers are trying to address this issue by linking the topics of the different exhibition spaces, as it happened last year when the monastery and the grange both housed exhibitions on image cult in the Middle-Ages hoping to make visitors perceive them complementary and, hence, compulsory to see both. This year’s exhibition stems from monastic life and tries to explore what it means to live in such a closed, consecrated community. Who are the people who have been living here for centuries what principles, ideals, rules have shaped their lives and how is all this reflected in their material culture?

The permanent exhibition attempts to provide answers based on the Pannonhalma Monastery’s own collection and the current temporary exhibition contributes to this attempt by offering some historical and art historical perspectives. Here the keyword is spirituality, and with this, more general questions are raised: How does one become a monk? What is the meaning of the “Regula Benedicti”? What is it about? What is a good monk like? What is a good abbot like?  The answers are illustrated by object and written documents placing the monastery into a historical as well as a spiritual context. It offers a glimpse of Benedictine spirituality to allow the visitors to comprehend life within the monastery more thoroughly. There are two main focuses of the exhibition: Saint Benedict, whose different depictions and interpretations open the exhibition, and his Regula, his only written testament, which has been the major organising force of life in the Benedictine community for many centuries.

The visitor is welcomed by the gilded statues of Saint Maurus and Saint Placidus and by the text maze of the Regula. The statues are from the altar of the monastery in Lavanttal and the text on the floor follows the shape of the maze near the monastery in Pannonhalma mixing the visual heritage of the two. The first part of the exhibition is about Saint Benedict’s life and wonders, while the second part focuses on the Text of the Regula Benedicti: Saint Benedict is the ideal and the Regula is a practical guide to be followed by the monks in their everyday lives. A manuscript from the Middle-Ages, a Venetian print from the 15^th century and an 18^th century Regula Emblematica Sancti Bendicti all illustrate the different forms the text itself appeared in and how it was used and complemented with pictures. Bonifaz Gallner’s Regula Emblematica version (the bottom picture) for example reinterpreted the regulations in the form of short mottos and served as a memorizing tool with its round shaped illustrations for the monks. The practical dimension of the Regula are explored by a copper cut detailing   proper clothing rules, the daily routine and the order of the prayers. The Benedictine culture of reading and the scriptorum (a room in Medieval monasteries for copying manuscripts) which played an important role in the history of science are explained by manuscripts from the 9-14^th century. As Pope Paul VI emphasised during the beatification of Benedict in 1964: the Benedictine order played an enormous role in recording and thus saving the antique culture.

The third section returns to the monastic life and illustrates the liturgical daily routine through extraordinary objects: an embroidered silk antependium from the 14^th century Zadar (a Croatian town on the Adriatic coast), 11^th century liturgical manuscripts from Southern Germany, a hymn book with miniatures from England or a 13^th century enamelled procession cross from Limouge.

All in all it is a great opportunity to see one of Europe’s oldest monasteries and understand the life of these humble bothers, who are always ready to renew their millennial tradition.