The Ananie Office

The Ananie V session took place from 4 September to 27 November 2025. There were 25 participants: 17 nuns and eight monks. Among them, 12 came from Africa, four sisters from Madagascar, three brothers and four sisters from Vietnam, and two sisters from French monasteries. These sessions provide a genuine service to communities, as is evidenced by the highly positive feedback.

Launched in 2013 at the initiative of several Benedictine and Cistercian superiors who direct it, the Ananie training is designed for monks and nuns who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and who already have a certain amount of experience. The program is envisioned as a springboard to enable participants to take on more responsibilities within their communities.

Participants are hosted in monasteries with a dual purpose: to maintain a monastic setting during these three months and to allow them to discover the various faces of monastic life in Europe. The 2025 session began at La Pierre-qui-Vire (OSB), and then the group explored Échourgnac (OCSO), Maumont (OSB) and Cîteaux (OCSO), alternating between monasteries of monks and nuns, as well as between Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries.

The Program

Over the course of the sessions, the program revisits the fundamental pillars of monastic life:

• Monastic Life and Scripture: The monk living with the Word
• The Liturgy: As a monastic experience
• The Rule
• The History of Monasticism
• Spiritual Accompaniment
• Psychology and Spiritual Life
• Community Life
• Economics / Financial Stewardship

The speakers are mostly monks and nuns, along with a few lay professors. For the 2025 session, group accompaniment was provided by a team of two: Brother Cyprien, a monk from La Pierre-qui-Vire, and Sister Benoît, Abbess Emerita of Maumont.

Pastor Pierre-Yves Brandt, a psychology professor with a deep knowledge of the monastic tradition, spoke three times during the 2025 session to teach theological/spiritual reflection (relecture). "He teaches us how to transmit and how to be free by grounding our choices in the Word and monastic tradition."

Excursions typically allow participants to discover historic monastic sites, as well as ecumenical ones whenever possible. In 2025, these included a weekend in Taizé with a stop in Cluny; a day in Rocamadour; a day in Aubeterre (a beautiful village with an astonishing underground church); prayer at the Carmel of Montbard; a Byzantine-rite Catholic community; and Fontenay Abbey.

Looking Ahead

The next session, Ananie VI, will take place in 2028, from 21 September to 14 December. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or potential candidates.

Contact

Abbot Luc Cornuau OSB
Abbey of la Pierre-qui-Vire
p.abbe@apqv.fr