Benedictine Confederation

The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict (Latin: Confœderatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti) is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict.

The Benedictine Confederation is a union of monastic congregations that nevertheless retain their own autonomy, established by Pope Leo XIII in his brief "Summum semper" (12 July 1893), subsequently approved by his successors. Pope Pius XII explicitly ordered this union to be regulated by a "Lex Propria", which was later revised after the Second Vatican Council.

Most Benedictine houses are loosely affiliated in 20 national or supra-national congregations. Each of these congregations elects its own Abbot President. These presidents meet annually in the Synod of Presidents. Additionally, there is a meeting every four years of the Congress of Abbots, which is made up of all abbots and conventual priors, both of monasteries that are members of congregations, as well as of those unaffiliated with any particular congregation. The Congress of Abbots elects the Abbot Primate, who serves a four-year term as the Confederation's representative and administrative head, although without direct jurisdiction over the individual Congregations.

The Confederation has its headquarters at Sant'Anselmo in Rome, which is the seat of the Abbot Primate and hosts the quadrennial Congress of Abbots. Sant'Anselmo is also home to the Benedictine Pontifical Athenaeum.

Communities of Benedictine nuns and Religious Sisters are joined in 61 congregations and federations that are associated with the Confederation, although they do not have full membership. In November 2001 after a consultation process with all monasteries of Benedictine women around the world, it was decided to use the name Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum (CIB) to designate all communities of Benedictine women recognized by the Abbot Primate as such and listed in the Catalogus Monasteriorum O.S.B.

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