In consideration of both the career and the personal and professional characteristics of Brother Martín Correa OSB, when I was asked to develop an article dedicated to him I found I could not accomplish it only with a collection of his works and writings, nor based on my own experiences as his collaborator during the development of the project for the Church of the Benedictines. While there is extensive literature on the church and monastery (1), the fact that I’ve known Brother Martín for many years and his condition as monk - architect, having worked with him in close proximity, admiring his stance and vision of religious architecture and by extension of contemporary architecture in general, I was convinced that this was an opportunity to collect -with his own words and from his own experiences- a series of issues related to his person, his thoughts and his work, even risking that modesty might limit the power and depth of his story. Together we agreed on a thematic guideline that could conduct a story to account for the trajectory of his life, not only from the point of view of the monkhood but also from his relationship with architecture. In association with Father Gabriel Guarda OSB, he was the co-author of one of the most unique contemporary works of architecture in Chile. The Benedictine Monastery, declared a Historic Monument by the National Monuments Council in 1981, is one of the few cases of nominations for national monuments in the second half of the twentieth century. Speaking with the sincerity and freedom given by a solid friendship, but mainly from we might call the responses to my provocations, the main body of text for this article began to materialize, along with drawings, graphs and photographs - several of his own authorship - rescued by Brother Martín from his papers and the monastic archives, which apart from illustrating his words, reveal the meaning he gives to these images. After several months of work and with the distance imposed by contemplative and cloistered life, a direct, profound and yet spontaneous testimony is presented, only encouraged by me, prodding him to unleash the memories, beliefs and background circumstances that explain and describe a work we all admire and that moves us. The architectural vocation and the religious monastic vocation After school, perhaps even before, which were the motivations and reasons to study architecture? Was there only an artistic interest, a vocation for design, or were there other challenges? - At 18, the only thing that was clear to me was my desire to study a profession related to art, and my cousin architect Sergio Larraín (partner of Carlos Bolton and Luis Prieto) guided me towards architecture. There I encountered two formative streams: a classical one, with the Treaty of Vignola as a manual and sponsored by the school authorities, and a contemporary one, represented by the “plastics” course led by teachers like Alberto Cruz Covarrubias, Alberto Piwonka and others, very updated on the works of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus. Already in the fourth year the tension between the two streams was unsustainable, and since the request for change was not heard either by the management or by the university president don Carlos Casanueva, it was decided not to attend classes. After a few weeks, and thanks to the intervention of Vice Chancellor
Bernardino Piñera, dean Alberto Risopatrón and director Alfredo Johnson resigned. The joy was manifested in many ways, being the public and noisy burning of the Vignola the most symbolic expression of the new orientation. The paradox was that those who encouraged us to change and should have assumed the leadership of the new training process, informed us that they could not take over, as they had succeeded in founding the Institute of Architecture of the Catholic University of Valparaiso with the greatest autonomy. It is the origin of what would become the Ritoque Open City and the Amereida project. It was then that the students turned to Sergio Larraín García Moreno, who became dean in 1952 and next to Mario Pérez de Arce Lavin, Héctor Valdés Phillips, Emilio Duhart and others constituted the new team of teachers.
The religious monastic vocation
Already in college, or perhaps before, how was the religious vocation born? Why a monastic order and, specifically, the Order of St. Benedict? - In the third year I experienced a vocational crisis. Coming from a traditional Catholic family and educated in schools with good religious training, I tried to live my Christian faith consistently, but amid a very natural and concrete social life with many friends of both sexes. That's when the university chaplain invited me to organize a group of the Catholic Action in Architecture, which in turn led me to make contact with the chaplain of the University Catholic Action of the Archdiocese, Father Gonzalo Silva. Consequently, participating regularly in prayer meetings, gospel commentary and social work in a low income neighborhood, I began to feel the need to fully surrender to God, something incompatible with professional life and being the head of a family. As the words of Jesus to the rich young man who asked what to do to be better, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Luke18: 22). That 'come follow me' reached deep inside of me. In order to make a firm decision, I worked for about three years as a draftsman at Bolton Larraín Prieto and at the studio of Sergio Larraín García Moreno I designed and built a house. To get rid of any doubts I graduated in the fifth year, but my quest for certainty did not carry me on to the final project, which would have taken one more year. However, at the time of the big decision, probably given my personal limitations that inclined me towards dispersion, the Lord led me not to a clerical apostolic religious life, but to a cloistered one like the Benedictine that I had providentially found. This was then a small community of monks led by a spiritual father and settled on the outskirts of Santiago, in silence, trying to live by the rule full of wisdom, moderation and depth established by Saint Benedict for those who wanted to seek God. I was attracted to the balance of the day with its times for prayer, manual work, study and moments of camaraderie. And particularly the Benedictine spirituality, rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church and a liturgy made with great tidiness and sobriety, in other words, a Christ-centered spirituality, with no specific devotions and open to men of any condition and time. Finally, I was drawn by the contemplative apostolic responsibility for which, separate from everyone, one can be more deeply attached to each one, in Christ.
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