The old St. Benedict medal blessing?

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Leon_Bloy

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I have a complicated question, haha. Maybe somebody could help me.

I have some St. Benedict medals I would like to have blessed with the special blessing proper to them (which contains an exorcism). There is the old blessing (in Latin, of course) contained in the 1962 Rituale Romanum, and then a currently approved 1980 revised one from the Benedictines themselves that is similar but slightly different (that one’s approved for use in English, as well).

The 1962 Rituale is approved for use by Pope Benedict, obviously, now. But it reserved the blessing to members of the Benedictine order. In 1964, however, the privilege of using the prayer was extended to all priests, Benedictine or not. So… is the indult to all priests to use the reserved blessings of 1962 valid because of the 1964 instruction, or do only things up to 1962 “count” in terms of using that missal?

I hope this makes sense!
 
I’ve been trying to make sense of all this myself, since I have a St. Benedict medal that I want to get blessed. Here’s the thread on that, which may or may not contain information useful to you.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=623535

I’m very interested in what you say about a 1980 blessing. Do you have the text for that? The newest I’ve been able to find is the 1964 version. Unless you are confusing the dates. For the sake of increasing my chances of getting the blessing and reducing how crazy my priest thinks I am I want to use the most recent approved blessing.

I don’t know whether the older, pre-Vatican II blessing can be performed by a non-Benedictine. A poster in my thread thought so and quoted the Code of Canon Law in support of this idea, but I would have assumed that if the old form could still be used at all it would still be only for the Benedictines.
 
Wow, thanks for such a thoughtful answer. I will look at the other thread you cited.

This is the newer blessing that I found at osb.org/gen/medal.html .
It seems to be an authoritative source, and I think I’ve seen in printed on leaflets that are sometimes sold with the unblessed medals themselves. Does this seem legitimate to you? I completely understand the thing about the priest thinking you are crazy! (“But really… we’re not!”).

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.

In the name of God the Father + almighty, who made heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, I exorcise these medals against the power and attacks of the evil one. May all who use these medals devoutly be blessed with health of soul and body. In the name of the Father + almighty, of the Son + Jesus Christ our Lord, and of the Holy + Spirit the Paraclete, and in the love of the same Lord Jesus Christ who will come on the last day to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire.
Amen.

Let us pray. Almighty God, the boundless source of all good things, we humbly ask that, through the intercession of Saint Benedict, you pour out your blessings + upon these medals. May those who use them devoutly and earnestly strive to perform good works be blessed by you with health of soul and body, the grace of a holy life, and remission of the temporal punishment due to sin.

May they also with the help of your merciful love, resist the temptation of the evil one and strive to exercise true charity and justice toward all, so that one day they may appear sinless and holy in your sight. This we ask though Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The medals are then sprinkled with holy water.
Permissu superiorum

Nihil obstat and Imprimatur, Saint Cloud, 24 April 1980.
 
I am not sure I understand, are you blessing the medals yourself? Or, are you just curious of the way they are blessed?

I have several Benedictine medals, and crucifixes, but I had them blessed at the abbey. I never thought of doing it myself.
 
Do you have any Benedictines in your neck of the woods? Our diocese has a Benedictine Bishop who blessed a batch of these medals and passed them out at our church! 😃
 
Irish_Polock said:
I am not sure I understand, are you blessing the medals yourself? Or, are you just curious of the way they are blessed?

I have several Benedictine medals, and crucifixes, but I had them blessed at the abbey. I never thought of doing it myself.
Click to expand...
No, I would certainly not attempt to bless anything myself, since I am a layman. It would have no effect even if I tried. I mean presenting them to a priest for the blessing.

If you had them blessed at the Abbey and you recall that the blessing was more than about ten seconds long, then it was probably according to the official blessing proper to these medals. They are really a cool sacramental!
 
AmbroseSJ said:
Do you have any Benedictines in your neck of the woods? Our diocese has a Benedictine Bishop who blessed a batch of these medals and passed them out at our church! 😃
Click to expand...
Sadly, none around here. That is really cool that the Benedictine bishop blessed those! I wish more people asked for and used this sacramental. It is evidently the only medal that carries an exorcism. Many people don’t realize there is a special blessing, though.
 
Leon_Bloy said:
No, I would certainly not attempt to bless anything myself, since I am a layman. It would have no effect even if I tried. I mean presenting them to a priest for the blessing.

If you had them blessed at the Abbey and you recall that the blessing was more than about ten seconds long, then it was probably according to the official blessing proper to these medals. They are really a cool sacramental!
Click to expand...
I was not present for the blessing, although, it was at a fairly “traditional” abbey, so I do not doubt that it was in the proper form. And they are indeed great sacramentals’, my entire family wears one with a Miraculous Medal - and, I have a Benedictine Crucifix in every room of our home. 😃
 
Mine was blessed by the Benedictine priest and my traditional parish. The blessing took a minute or two if I recall correctly.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
I don’t know whether the older, pre-Vatican II blessing can be performed by a non-Benedictine. A poster in my thread thought so and quoted the Code of Canon Law in support of this idea, but I would have assumed that if the old form could still be used at all it would still be only for the Benedictines.
Click to expand...
I’m pretty sure the FSSP priest who blessed my medal used the Pre-Vatican blessing. It was long! 😃
 
Leon_Bloy said:
Sadly, none around here. That is really cool that the Benedictine bishop blessed those! I wish more people asked for and used this sacramental. It is evidently the only medal that carries an exorcism. Many people don’t realize there is a special blessing, though.
Click to expand...
We are really blessed in this diocese to have this Benedictine Bishop. His name is Bishop Griese. He’s also the Abbot of Benedictine Monastery and High School in Cleveland Ohio. When he came to our parish, he explained the whole legend behind the medal, and what all of the symbolism was. He did mention that there was an exorcism attached to the medal as well. I attached mine to my daily rosary and I always say the prayer of St. Michael the Archangel on it. 🙂

Our Bishop is such a good and holy man. I’ll bet if you sent your medal to him c/o the Chancery of the Cleveland Diocese, he would bless it for you and send it back.
 
Sorry, I cannot answer your questions.

I purchased my blessed St. Benedict medals through an Ebay store from St. Leo’s Abbey in Florida. The advertisement said that the exorcism blessing was performed by the Benedictines after the medals were procured.

The blessing should be valid…Right?:confused:

The Ebay store no longer exists and the abbey’s website does not offer them.

The medals were very inexpensive. I ordered 50 of them. 49 of the medals are identical to each other. One of the medals is covered on one side with thick blue plastic. Does anyone know if there is a significance to the blue?
 
MtnDwellar said:
Sorry, I cannot answer your questions.

I purchased my blessed St. Benedict medals through an Ebay store from St. Leo’s Abbey in Florida. The advertisement said that the exorcism blessing was performed by the Benedictines after the medals were procured.

The blessing should be valid…Right?:confused:

The Ebay store no longer exists and the abbey’s website does not offer them.

The medals were very inexpensive. I ordered 50 of them. 49 of the medals are identical to each other. One of the medals is covered on one side with thick blue plastic. Does anyone know if there is a significance to the blue?
Click to expand...
Ordinarily, a sacramental’s blessing is lost once it is sold, to prevent simony. Thus you would need to get them blessed again. If I understand you right though, the monks blessed the medals after you bought them but before they were shipped, having advertised in advance that they would do this if you bought the medals. Not sure of the morality of the monks doing this or the status of the blessings in that case. My guess, which is nothing more than that, would be that the blessings are still valid but the monks should not be circumventing the law like that and in effect selling valid exorcisms/blessings. Hopefully I’m just missing something important.

No idea about the blue backing. Maybe it was once attached to a rosary or something else, and they couldn’t get the plastic off?
 
Leon_Bloy said:
I have a complicated question, haha. Maybe somebody could help me.

I have some St. Benedict medals I would like to have blessed with the special blessing proper to them (which contains an exorcism). There is the old blessing (in Latin, of course) contained in the 1962 Rituale Romanum, and then a currently approved 1980 revised one from the Benedictines themselves that is similar but slightly different (that one’s approved for use in English, as well).

The 1962 Rituale is approved for use by Pope Benedict, obviously, now. But it reserved the blessing to members of the Benedictine order. In 1964, however, the privilege of using the prayer was extended to all priests, Benedictine or not. So… is the indult to all priests to use the reserved blessings of 1962 valid because of the 1964 instruction, or do only things up to 1962 “count” in terms of using that missal?

I hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...
Code: 
   Any priest now may  say the rite of Blessing of Benedictine medals.  However the older rite of Blessing with the exorcism calls for a priest and not a deacon.  This the older rite of Blessing with an exorcism.

    Many priests use the older rite of  Blessing because these rite are constitutive blessings.  Fr. John Zuhlsdorf   Blog explains this better than I:
wdtprs.com/blog/2011/03/quaeritur-deacons-and-blessings-with-the-traditional-roman-ritual/

“In a nutshell, the new, post-Conciliar book eliminates the distinction between invocative and constitutive blessings. The “blessings” in the new book don’t really bless things in the same way that the older ritual intended to bless things”
Code: 
    Historically the Church's viewpoint  was that Satan was prince of this world. So sacramentals were exorcised before being blessed.   The older rites are deemed by many to be more efficacious because they are constitutive blessings.  Also the new rite of exorcism one gets a sense that evil is just part of human nature and does not exist independently of humans,  the state exists forever and humans pass on.  

   So many  Catholics, even some priests,  don't even believe in the need for  exorcisms.   I know evil spirits exist independently of  us.  While becoming obsessed on the existence of the devil is surely not good,  I believe we should be aware of Satan's existence and guard ourselves from him.

   We should listen with patience and great kindness when others speak up about their personal battles with the evil one.   Only a trained exorcist can diagnose with certainty if someone is sufferring from extraordinary attacks of Satan and then  the victim has to be present  physically.  However praying for others is always good.  Most of the time all it takes are prayers of deliverance or simple exorcisms said by a priest devoted to the ministry of exorcism to be delivered.   

    Personally,  I believe the Holy Spirit wants the Catholic Faithful to see the need for priests in this time of scandal.  How else can it be because  priests simply by saying simple exorcisms or prayers of deliverance  are delivering many people.  I believe that this is a demonstration of the power of Holy Orders; and also,  how God works through His priests.
BP
 
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