Monday, June 8, 2009

Monks of the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos


This is some good Spanish practice, but also enjoyable if you don't speak the language!

The Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos is a Benedictine monastery in the village of Santo Domingo de Silos in the southern part of Burgos Province in northern Spain.The monks of Silos became internationally famous with the issue of several Gregorian chant albums, most famously Chant. First released on LP, the CD became popular when re-released by Angel Records in 1994 and strongly marketed. The monastery, though not in its current configuration goes back to the Visigothic period (seventh century), but disappears during the Muslim occupation of Spain.

In the tenth century still called San Sebastian de Silos, and particularly during the period in which the ruling conde Fernán González Castilla (930-970), returns to revive the monastic community reaching a thriving Community again.

With the strong momentum of Santo Domingo as abbot of the monastery was built the Romanesque church, a magnificent temple with three naves and apses five enshrined in 1088 by Abbot Fortunio, the faculty still lingers, and the rest of the monastic dependencies. On the death of the saint, the monastery takes its sponsorship and is now called Santo Domingo de Silos, in 1880 establishing a new community of Benedictine monks arrived from the French abbey of Ligugé. (Solesmes Congregation)

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