SR. JULIE ANN PESONGCO,OCSO
The Second Vatican Council taught that the authentic renewal of religious life requires “a continual return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original inspiration behind a given institute.” At the same time, it urged religious communities to faithfully preserve “the spirit and aims of each founder, as well as sound traditions,” recognizing them as part of the Church’s enduring patrimony (Perfectae Caritatis, no. 2).
From the time of Mother Cristiana Piccardo, Abbess of the Community of Vitorchiano during the years of the Council, the Vitorchiano Family has sought to respond faithfully to this conciliar vision. Such renewal has never been understood as a departure from tradition, but rather as a deeper appropriation of the spiritual inheritance received from our Cistercian Fathers and Mothers.
In our monastery, this commitment continues to shape our ongoing formation. We have adopted the annual observance of Cistercian Week, an initiative from the Monastery of Valserena, the first daughterhouse of Vitorchiano. This week-long program consists of a series of conferences presented by selected members of the community, occasionally supplemented by guest speakers from other monasteries or by specialized online courses. Together, these conferences revisit the history, spirituality, theology, and literary heritage of the Cistercian tradition, paying particular attention to the legacy of Cîteaux.
The theme chosen for our Cistercian Week in 2021 was the lives and contributions of lesser-known Cistercian Fathers and Mothers. I was entrusted with studying Blessed Oglerio of Locedio, a figure about whom I knew very little. What began as preparation for a conference gradually became an unexpected encounter with one of the hidden treasures of medieval Cistercian spirituality.
As my study progressed, my appreciation for the Cistercian tradition deepened considerably. This admiration is neither historical triumphalism nor an attempt to magnify the Order’s achievements beyond their proper measure. Rather, it is the genuine wonder of a student rediscovering the remarkable spiritual and theological vitality that flourished within the early Cistercian movement. Time and again, evidence emerges that Cîteaux served as a privileged seedbed in which numerous theological insights, liturgical expressions, and especially Marian devotions were cultivated with exceptional richness before finding wider reception in the life of the Church.
Among the discoveries that most impressed me was the Marian work of Blessed Oglerio, In Praise of God’s Holy Mother, commonly known as the Planctus Mariae. While studying this remarkable text, I became increasingly convinced that its sequence of Marian invocations anticipates, both in spirit and literary form, what later generations would know as the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto. Although no direct historical dependence can be asserted with certainty, the Planctus Mariae stands as a significant witness to an earlier tradition of Marian praise and may rightly be regarded as one of the liturgical and devotional antecedents of the Loreto Litany.
What began as a research report prepared for the community soon resembled an archaeological excavation. Each resource revealed another layer of a forgotten spiritual heritage, and every text uncovered suggested richer veins waiting to be explored. Then, unexpectedly, another discovery emerged. Scattered throughout the chapters of the Planctus Mariae was a remarkable series of Marian acclamations—brief yet profound praises woven into Blessed Oglerio’s meditation on the Blessed Virgin. Considered individually, these acclamations are beautiful literary expressions; gathered together, they form what may fittingly be described as a Marian Litany of Praise.
