Monastic Formators’ Program

The Pontifical Benedictine Athenaeum of Saint Anselmo on the Aventine in Rome is one of the few Benedictine universities in the world to have (among other faculties) a Faculty of Theology, which has full ecclesiastical and civil rights and can award the doctorate in theology. It offers a course of study with a sapiential orientation for beginners up to the baccalaureate. For more advanced students, there are special courses in ‘monastic theology of spirituality’, ‘sacramental theology’ and ‘history of theology’.

The Monastic Formators' Program (MFP), founded at the instigation of the 2002 Congress of Abbots and supported by Benedictines, Cistercians and other orders, is the reference program for dedicated monastic formation.

The Monastic Formation Course (CFM) was set up in 2001 by the Abbot General of the Cistercian Order, Dom Mauro Esteva i Alsina, to promote the training of formators of young monks and nuns in the Order, and subsequently of monks and nuns in formation.

Training for French-speaking monastic formators.
This course is inspired by the English-language Monastic Formators' Program that has been running in Rome for several years.

Given the real and urgent need for teachers in their young communities, the Superiors of the French-speaking monasteries of West Africa created the ‘Structure Sainte-Anne’.

In 2016, the Superior of the monastery in Bouaké (Côte d'Ivoire) set up a Studium for philosophical and theological training linked to the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO).

Inter-monastery theological formation in Madagascar.
The contemplative monasteries of Madagascar and the Indian Ocean come together every year for training sessions for superiors, formators and cellarers.