About Sapientia Viva
Sapientia Viva is Latin for “living wisdom.” We are building a living corpus of Benedictine knowledge and expertise, with and for Benedictine communities.
A corpus for Benedictine communities
This collection brings together lived experience, practical knowledge, reflection, and discernment in the words of the people who hold them. The aim is to preserve that knowledge and make it a resource for Benedictine communities’ own learning, reflection, and decisions. Contributions from different communities and generations can help this corpus continue to grow as a living record.
A tradition with many voices
We understand Benedictine values broadly. Hospitality, humility, discernment, care, community, and the balance of prayer and work are starting points for inquiry. Monks, sisters, oblates, scholars, and others bring different experiences, cultures, and interpretations. No one response speaks for everyone. We want to preserve disagreements and report patterns alongside their context, including whose perspectives we have yet to hear.
Making informed choices about AI
The corpus can help communities make informed choices about AI: which models, if any, address their questions, align with their values, and are tools they want to use. Comparing and evaluating models can inform those choices. With the appropriate permissions, the corpus could also support communities that choose to develop or train their own models. Communities may choose particular tools or decide not to use AI.
Contributing your knowledge
Share your experience and judgment in your own words. No academic citation is required. Your contribution helps preserve knowledge and expertise that Benedictine communities can draw on. Responses are currently stored for private research and read by authorized project staff. New responses do not automatically grant permission for model training, retrieval, or public quotation; those uses require appropriate permissions. You can withdraw a response from your account.