Bread Monk talks bread, education and community

Father Dominic Garramone – “The Bread Monk” prays before breaking bread with visiting members of the National Evangelization Team (NET) and Saint Bede Academy students at St. Bede Abbey’s Bethany House. (Supplied photo)
Father Dominic Garramone, OSB – aka the “Bread Monk” – has a lot cooking.
He has written 11 cookbooks (not counting second editions), and served as the host of the PBS cooking show “Breaking Bread with Father Garramone” from 1999-2001.
He’s also an also an award-winning children’s book author (“Brother Jerome and the Angels in the Bakery”) and a published playwright.
The thing about bread that I like is that it connects you with other people . . . you automatically share it.” – Father Dominic Garramone
For many, that would be a resume-full, but for Father Garramone, it’s only part of the story – and for him, not even the most essential part. That’s because Father Garramone is also a Catholic priest and a monk of St. Bede Abbey in Peru.
LEAVEN OF DIVINE JUSTICE
There, he serves as head of the religion department at St. Bede Academy onsite, and as the high school’s chaplain.
Asked if he sees any similarities between bread-making and religious education, Father Garramone replied, “I will say this – the rule of St. Benedict specifically says that the abbott is to make sure that the leaven of divine justice permeates the minds of his disciples.”
“So if we’re going to take that same analogy,” he continued, “then my job as a chaplain is to . . . make sure that the leaven of divine justice is thoroughly mixed into the brains of my students.”
NEW GUEST HOUSE TO OPEN
The monks of St. Bede are making another outreach to inspire the leaven of divine inspiration with the renovation of a former boarding house into a guesthouse.
Father Garramone said Bethany House has been hosting guests as renovations near completion (they are targeting early January for work to be finished). He describes Bethany as a place for retreats, or for classes and workshops, or simply “where people can stay just to have some rest and relaxation in a quiet and sacred place.”
ALL FUNDS SUPPORT COMMUNITY
The Bread Monk’s two most recent books are “Baking Your Way Through the Holidays” (and who says the holidays ever have to end?), and “Breakfast Breads and Sweet Treats.” Father Garramone confirmed that any money raised through the sale of his books goes to the monastic community as a whole.
His core motivation in baking, he said, is building community in Christ. He explained that the word for company, or companion, comes from the Latin “cum panem,” which means “with bread.”
“The thing about bread that I like is that it connects you with other people . . . you automatically share it and that’s very much connected of course to our concept about the Eucharist and forming Christian community.”