BUTLER, CUTHBERT. - Benedictine abbot, learned historian of monasticism, b. in Dublin on 6 May 1858, d. on 1 Apr. 1933 at Ealing (London). After his classical studies at the College attached to the Benedictine monastery of Downside (southern England, 1869–75), he entered the Order (1876) and was ordained priest in 1884. From 1896 to 1904 he was Superior of the Benedictine house of studies at Cambridge; from 1906 to 1922, abbot of Downside; and from 1911 to 1921 also president of the English Benedictine Congregation. In view of the almost missionary character that this Congregation had retained, from his early days as a monk he encouraged the movement towards a return to the ancient tradition, which saw the ideal in a more intense life in the individual abbeys, in liturgical splendour, and in studies. Under the influence of Edmondo Bishop, he devoted himself to studies of monasticism and early ecclesiastical literature. For this purpose he also undertook journeys to Italy and Germany.
His principal works are: edition of the Greek text of Palladio’s Historia Launica (2 vols., Cambridge University Press, 1898–1904); S. Benedicti Regula Monasteriorum (Friburgo in Br. 1912, 2nd ed. ibid. 1927), with sources and parallel passages; Benedictine Monachism (London 1919, 2nd ed. ibid. 1924); Western Mysticism (ibid. 1922, 2nd ed. ibid. 1924); The Life and Times of Archbishop Ullathorne (2 vols., ibid. 1926). He contributed to many journals, especially to The Downside Review, and to various Encyclopaedias.