Klosterneuburg and the Canons

I have went to a Catholic school all throughout high school.  I went to religion class four times a week, mass once a week, chapel once a week, confession once a month, and I had at least three teachers who were priests or nuns.  Given that I am not actually Catholic, I thought that I was pretty well versed in Catholic practices, Catholic churches, and what extreme Catholics are like.  Klosterneuburg proved me wrong.

When we first arrived at Klosterneuburg I was amazed by the beautiful architecture and grounds of the monastery.  I had always known that Catholics enjoyed their lavish and extravagant Churches, but from what I had seen in the United States, I thought that monks, priests, and nuns lived in less ostentatious places.  This is obviously not the case in Europe and is especially not the case for the Augustinian canons who live in Klosterneuburg.  This extreme different in living quarters was only the first of the many differences that I learned existed between the priests I knew back here in California and the canons.

Probably the most easily identifiable difference between canons and regular priests is the outfits that they wear.  While both groups tend to wear the black cossack, the Augustinian canons wear something called a sarozium, which looks like an extremely long and extremely thin white tie.  When we asked Dom Ambrose, the first canon we met who was actually an American, why they wore these, he told us that the practice stemmed from the fact that canons used to wear a white cossack and a white rochet all day long.  Over time however, the white habit became black and the rochet was trimmed down into the modern day sarozium.  This outfit seems to be much more practical while still showing that the canon is dedicated to serving God not only in Church but in the outside world as well.

The next thing I learned about the canons that truly baffled me was that they do not take a vow of poverty.  For years I have thought that this was a fundamental part of joining any Catholic order, but it appears either I was misunderstanding (or possibly not maying attention) in class or my teachers were only teaching us about the way that the priests who worked at our school operated.  Instead of taking this vow of poverty, canons instead, from what I understand, take a vow of common property.  This means that everything that they have belongs to all of the canons regular.  This vow actually makes a lot more sense to me than the vow of poverty that most priests take.

After we left the actually canonry and went to the wine garden I was able to experience one more difference between Augustinian canons and the priests back home.  Canons drink like fish.  I never saw or heard about any priest I knew in the past drinking alcohol, except of course the wine in the Eucharist but at that point according to Catholic tradition it is blood and not wine.  The canons at Klosterneuburg were a totally different story however.  They love their wine.  They even make their own, although Dom Ambrose the whole time was complaining about the fact that he does not actually like Austrian wines.  It was also at this wine garden however, that I noticed a very large similarity between Catholic priests and Augustinian canons.  They both tend to be so firm in their beliefs that they are unwilling or unable to bend at all in an argument or discussion.  This makes a great deal of sense to me because I know that if you did not have such firm ideas you probably would not have the drive or desire to join a Catholic order.