Monastic life in Poland

I have just come back from Tyniec Monastery near Krakow in Poland on a trip organised by the Gregorian Schola at St James, Spanish Place.

This remarkable Benedictine Abbey probably has the youngest average age of any Benedictine monastery in the world. It is thriving. There are forty monks and still they keep coming.

While we were there, we had a chant lesson with the Abbot.

We sang with the Monks (well, quietly from the pews) for first Solemn Vespers for the Feast of the Birth of John Baptist which of course included the Office hymn Ut Queant Laxis (Leutgeb calls it Do-re-mi Sunday!) The community sing Vespers and Compline in Latin and the rest of the office is sung in Polish.