Reforming Chant: A Story of Women’s Liturgical Leadership in Changing Times

What are we saying when we are singing?  When we choose music for the liturgy or decide to change it, what is it we want to communicate?  The Sisters of St. Benedict will host a lecture on chant presented by Br. John Glasenapp as part of the St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn Sacred Music Series. Hear the story of how the 15th-century Cistercian nuns of Beaupré championed their own path through a period of liturgical change, and reflect on the lessons they have for us today.

Sunday, October 13 at 3:00 p.m.
St. Gertrude Hall at the Benedictine Hospitality Center
This event is free and open to the public, with a free will offering available for those who wish to give their support. 

Br. John Glasenapp professed solemn vows as a monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in 2010, where he is also currently the founding director of the Saint Meinrad Institute for Sacred Music. He teaches Medieval Church History as well as courses in music history and medieval religious culture that have included Chant of the Roman Church, Hildegard’s Musical Cosmos, and Catholicism and the Musical Avant-Garde. He holds degrees from DePaul University, Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, Fordham University, and Columbia University, where he earned his PhD.

His article, “Nuns, Cistercian Chant and Observant Reform in the Southern Low Countries,” appeared in Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, c. 900 – 1500: Debating Identities, Creating Communities published by Boydell & Brewer in 2023. He has spoken at numerous academic conferences in the U.S. and Europe, including those of the American Musicological Society, the International Medieval Congress (University of Leeds, U.K.), and the Cantus Planus study group of the International Musicological Society. His doctoral research was supported by a Fulbright award to Belgium and by the Alliance-Council for European Studies. His research focuses on Cistercian chant, gender, musical authority and reform, manuscript studies, and networks of exchange between religious communities.