Last week Dom Placid Spearritt, the Abbot of New Norcia Abbey, died suddenly in England. News of his death was set among the daily chronicles of financial collapse around the world. That seemed paradoxical.
But to the contemporary eye the life of monks itself is a paradox. Monks travel lightly in terms of possessions, relationships, and measurable achievement. But they are chained for life to church, ceremonies, the daily rule and to a single monastery.
For many monks, including Placid, the paradox goes deeper. Their search for God leaves them scanning the horizon knowing that God is always beyond their reach. That intuition led them to become monks. The dress, chant, daily rule, prayers, ceremonies and location are simply blinkers that fix their gaze on the horizon. Placid once said that when he recited the psalms in choir he did not listen to the words, but to the silence between the words.
In this, Placid inherited a long tradition tracing back to scholar monks like Evagrius. Like Evagrius in the fourth century, Placid was deeply shaped by his study of late Roman Platonism, with its passion for an unknown God and its conviction that the way to God lies through silence. That lay at the heart of his years teaching at Ampleforth Abbey in England. That was where he died.
To be so detached from things that others take so seriously, and constantly to look out to sea in love with what lies beyond the horizon but with no possibility of seeing it, is commonly thought to make you unapproachable, other-worldly and impractical.
So it may seem paradoxical that the opposite was true of Placid. His passion for what was enduring and unattainable gave him an astringent eye for any attempt to build castles out of canvas, and a practical interest in what could reasonably be done. He was free from fantasies of greatness and fear of mistakes.
After he accepted the request to come to New Norcia, he set out to assure the viability of the sprawling Abbey settlement, closing the school and establishing the farm on a thoroughly professional and environmentally respectful basis. He also set up the splendid Abbey library in a way that opened it to scholars and visitors.
He helped make New Norcia the beautiful place that it is. Yet, when asked which vantage point yielded the most attractive view of the Abbey, he wryly