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Who is Benedict?
Benedict (c. 480-547) was born around
the year 480 in the Umbrian province of Nursia in Italy after
the fall of Rome in A.D.
410 and the official end of the Western empire in 476. It
was a dangerous and turbulent time. In his biography of St.
Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) described Benedict’s
family as one of high station. He was sent to Rome but soon
abandoned his studies, leaving the city that he felt was
too corrupt. Several years later he went to an area near
the town of Subiaco where he lived as a hermit in a hillside
cave for three years. There he was “discovered” by
others who recognized his holiness and wisdom. He founded
the monastery of Subiaco, which still exists today, along
with eleven other monasteries on this hillside. Benedict
left the area when a jealous local priest attempted to poison
him through the gift of tainted blessed bread! Benedict then
traveled to Monte Cassino in the imposing mountains of the
central Italian Apennines where he formed a new community
and remained there for the rest of his life. Benedict had
a sister, Scholastica, who had established herself nearby
with her own community of nuns. It was said that they met
together once a year. Benedict died in 547. Forty years after
his death the monastery was destroyed by the Lombards. Today
the relics of St. Benedict may be found at the abbey of St
Benoit-sur-Loire in France.
What did he do?
Benedict is most known for the creation of a monastic rule.
He wrote this rule for the monks of his own monastery at Monte
Cassino, having no thought of establishing a monastic rule
or that would be adopted by others. Yet, within a century or
two after his death in 547, Benedict had become the patriarch
of Western monasticism and his Rule the most influential in
the Western Church. By the high Middle Ages, most of the monasteries
of the West followed his Rule, as do many to this day. Benedict
would be astounded indeed to know that fifteen centuries later
you and I would look to his Rule for guidance in our own lives.
If you’d
like to see a brief description of the Rule, click
here.
Through his Rule
Benedict reveals wisdom and understanding along with a very
astute knowledge
of human behavior. But most
of all the Rule reveals Benedict’s love for his brothers,
his love of Christ and his desire that his monks, and us by
extension, follow Christ’s way to eternal life.
“Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God,
and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls
out this charge: If you hear his voice today, do not harden
your hearts.” (Prologue 9 and Psalm 95:8)
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