BUTLER, CUTHBERT. - Benedictine abbot, learned historian of monasticism, b. in Dublin on 6 May 1838, d. on 1 Apr. 1933 at Ealing (London). After 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. Confronted with the almost missionary character that this Congregation had retained, from his early days as a monk he fostered the movement toward a return to the ancient tradition that saw its ideal in a greater intensity of life in the individual houses, in liturgical splendor, and in studies. Under the influence of Edmund Bishop he devoted himself to studies on monasticism and ancient ecclesiastical literature. To this end he also undertook journeys to Italy and Germany.
His principal works are: Edition of the Greek text of Palladius’ Historia Lausiaca (2 vols., Cambridge University Press, 1898-1904); S. Benedicti Regula Monasteriorum (Freiburg im Br. 1912, 2nd ed. 1927), with its sources and parallel passages; Benedictine Monachism (London 1910, 2nd ed. 1924); Western Mysticism (ibid. 1922, 2nd ed. 1924); The Life and Times of Archbishop Ullathorne (2 vols., ibid. 1926). He collaborated in many journals, especially The Downside Review, and in various Encyclopedias.